The Year of The Marauders
by BlackLightDawn
Summary: Sirius has an idea: Make the Marauder's Last Year THEIR Year. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
1. Prologue: Welcome To My Life

**A/N : I haven't done this kind of writing (i.e fiction) in a long time, so please forgive me if my writing style is not up to scratch. I just re-read the fics I wrote more than a couple of years ago and boy did I suck. On the other hand, reading and reviewing will help me get better, so I hope you will enjoy this story which I am very determined to complete, and hope you will review at the end of this chapter, just a prologue that I wrote while trying to cram for my last few A level papers, which is joyfully next week. So, with that, hop in and enjoy!**

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Prologue: Welcome To My Life, by James Potter

It was dark, quiet, and all the clichéd adjectives one can think of would apply to such a stormy night. Checking my watch by the sliver of moonlight filtering in from the nearest window, I realised it was already ten past midnight. My partner and I stealthily crept forward, unflinching in our quest to reach our destination, our target, our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and our Holy Grail, if you will.

I see it. Our objective, less than twenty steps away. In our excitement me and my partner probably made more noise than was prudent...

Which, in hindsight, led to our eventual failure to reach our objective.

"Who's there?" A distinctly female and very pleasing (to me) voice called out. Sirius groaned under the cloak, which must have been disturbing to the two dark figures in front of us, discernable by the torchlight flickering off the walls. Imagine a disembodied groan coming from the seemingly empty space in the dim hallway of a creepy, dingy old castle full of ghosts. (As a matter of fact Hogwarts is cleaned so well by the house elves it is hardly dingy or old despite being a thousand years old, and the ghosts are in fact very friendly, but indulge me in my dramatics.)

"Come on out, Sirius. And I know you're there too James." Damn that Remus Lupin. Best friends are supposed to be with you through thick and thin, good times and bad times, and cover up for you, especially if he is in a position of authority, are they not? (Not.) With a last wistful glance at the portrait of the fruit basket, behind which lay the wonders that came from the house elves' cooking (the said Holy Grail, mentioned above), I pulled off the invisibility cloak, and revealed me and my best mate to the two Gryffindor prefects I knew were standing in front of us. The first, recognisable by his taller frame, is my traitorous prefect of a friend, Remus Lupin, while the other gave an audible gasp (a common reaction when faced with as rare an object as an invisibility cloak) in the same pleasing voice. Someone finally had the presence of mind to light up his wand.

"So that's how you buggers managed to sneak around for so many years!" The voice continued, and the girl to whom the voice belonged to stepped into the beam of wandlight. This girl is Lily Evans,6th year Gryffindor prefect, is perfect in every way from head to toe and personality to academics, and is also the girl of my dreams.

How do I describe her in a way that does her justice? Her lustrous red hair, ending in curls just below her shoulder, her brilliant green eyes (currently glaring daggers at me but I still like them), that incredibly cute dimple that only shows up on the left side of her face when she smi- she is speaking. Past experience has taught me to listen.

"-ow could you even allow this kind of thing into the school when you are a PREFECT, Remus, do you even-"

Good. Her wrath, however briefly, and if I may add, however sexy it makes her, is for now very fortunately (for me, not poor Remy) directed at Moony, and fearless Gryffindor though I may be I assure any readers that having Lily Evans angry at you is no joke.

I am, as you may have noticed, James Potter, dashing and charming Captain as well as star Chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, all round nice guy and popular bloke (according to myself and most girls I have come across), and also an arrogant toe rag, big headed dirt bag, and generally annoying, detestable and perverted jerk (according to ONE girl I have come across, *ahemLilyEvansahem* ). And unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years you would also have remembered my ridiculous (according to Sirius Black), stupid (Peter Pettigrew), and hopeless (Remus-sell-my-friends-down-the-river-Lupin) crush on said girl. Which would explain the sweaty palms, irregular heartbeat, and drool coming out of my mouth, except it doesn't. Because my...affection, for Lily Evans, is NOT a crush. Of course the last time I said that out loud, in the Marauders' (that's Sirius, Remus, Peter, and me) dorms, the results were disastrous. Sirius laughed so hard he fell off his bed and stayed on the floor rolling with laughter for a full five minutes, and Peter, who usually does what Sirius does, almost died of asphyxiation from laughing like Sirius, and even calm, composed, Remus had tears of mirth in his eyes while letting a couple of howls escape him (Thats probably from the inner werewolf in him. Creeps up on him at the worst of times.) Very unattractive, and very unlike the cool, steady Remus Lupin the rest of the school is used to. Needless to say, I was highly insulted and more than a little miffed, but as usual when it comes to my feelings, do they care? NO.

World-class mates I have. Wouldn't replace them for the world. (Again, not.)

Going by my previous assumption that you have NOT been living under a rock for the past couple of years, though for your health I would hope you would never have to, I think it would be unnessecsary to remind you of the spectacular and highly public failures I have had on what Sirius calls the "Lily-front", mostly due to my arrogant, pigheaded and prickish (so I've been told by Lily) self.

In my defence, (of course I would defend myself most vehemently, I am still, after all, a seventeen year old boy with hormones and such) I have tried to change. I really have. Really. I stopped running my hand through my hair every three seconds, I stopped asking the goddess-of-all-that-is-pure-and-holy-Lily-Evans out every single chance I got (man that was hard), and I have managed to ensure that the Marauder's pranks this year have been, as a rule, more funny than evil, all on the advice of one Remus Lupin, who, for a guy that has been single all through his Hogwarts career (not for his fan-girls' lack of trying, of course, cause _he's so cute and mysterious_) is really a know-it-all guru on this sort of thing. But I digress. The point is, I'm willing to do anything to get this redhead, currently still yakking away, to pick me over the giant squid for a date. (She said she'd rather have ol' Squiddy when I asked her out last year, but Squiddy's a pal and so far he hasn't been a backstabbing, Lily-stealing jerk.) Speaking of Lily, she's still yelling at someone. Oh great, it's my turn! Hear my joy? (And again, not.)

"And YOU! Do you know what rules are? R-U-L-E-S? They exist for a rea-" Sounds like she saved her best for me. I guess it is kind of pathetic that I have to find joy in the fact that she reserved her worst vitriol to rain on me.

My stomach grumbles. I sigh in my mind, because doing it for real would be akin to commiting Lily-cide (where she kills me, not the other way round) and continue to pretend to listen to the girl of my dreams bitch about me to ME, while I starve to death and my best mates make absolutely NO attempt to help me out. (I swear Sirius even looks gleeful that I'm getting more of an earful than him.) Welcome, in short, to my life.

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**A/N: I realise there's tons of stuff in brackets in this chapter, but I had to try to introduce the main people as much as I could in the prologue. It'll be better in the next chapters. For now, review please! I know its not my best effort and to get to that, I need constructive criticism, and that's where you come in, see? Thanks in advance!**


	2. The Year of the Marauders Begins!

**Disclaimer: I forgot this the last time round, but honestly, do I look like JK Rowling?**

**A/N: So this is the official start of the story! Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1: The Year of the Marauders…Begins!  
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In the beautiful summer of Scotland, there is a field. Across said field, lay a railway track. Upon said railway track is a bright red steam engine, chugging away merrily. And somewhere on this train, are four Gryffindor boys, already clad in their school uniforms, their Gryffindor badges prominent and shiny. (Very ardent Gryffindors they are.) These four boys in question are currently pigging out on sweets acquired from the trolley lady, courtesy of the seemingly bottomless pockets of a certain James Potter.

"So," One of the boys started. This one was Sirius Black, all elegant black hair and mischievious intent. "Will me and Pete get to do _anything_ at all this year?"

Two of the boys groaned. The one with the messy black hair and round glasses, James Potter, had his Head Boy badge on, while on the other boy's chest was a badge that read Gryffindor Prefect. This brown haired boy with a slight build was Remus Lupin, and the two of them knew _exactly _what Sirius was getting around to, for he had moaned about it all summer long.

And what a summer it was. In a way, the past summer holiday was THE magical summer of this little group of boys, both literally and figuratively, with all of them finally having come of age and able to perform ridiculous bits of magic for the simplest tasks, like James wanting to roast a couple of marshmallows and somehow managing to conjure up a fire that turned their marshmallows into little exploding bits of goo the moment they came into contact with the indigo flames.

They had had quite a lot of fun destroying things that day, but somehow they never managed to get the same kind of flames out of their wands ever again.

Adding on to this was the fact that they had all managed to pass their Apparition tests, even little Peter Pettigrew, who, though his friends would defend to the death, was simply lacking in the general brilliance possessed by the other three. This allowed the gang of them to be together practically every single second of the summer, even if they had to go back home occasionally to appease their parents.

Probably the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) thing that happened to them over the summer was Sirius getting his own flat in the second week, using money inherited from his uncle ("The only other Black other than me and Andy that got disowned, but I never got to know him," Sirius had said with a distinctly detached sadness.) and the Marauders, as they and everyone else called them, had used the fact that one of them actually _owned _his own place, in one of the yuppie-infested parts of Wizarding London no less, to maximum advantage.

So, put together four seventeen year old boys, just turned of age, in a place of their own, with wizarding pubs practically at their doorstep and no one to supervise decidedly ill advised acts of magic, and what do you get?

Havoc.

Its a wonder that all four of them managed to not die of alcohol poisoning, random spell damage, or other equally ignominous fates, and survive till the 1st of September.

What Sirius was going on about, however, was slightly different.

"How I am _ever_ going to live with the _agony_ of having a Head Boy and a Prefect as best friends? Oh the shame, the shame!" Sirius was particularly noted around school for his liberal use of dramatics.

"We already told you, nothing's going to change too much, so stop acting retarded and be serious." James rolled his eyes, and smacked his mate's head for good measure.

"You mean all this time he was acting?!" Big, round eyes conveyed disbelief from Remus' every pore.

"I'm hurt. You guys, of all people, should know I'm _always _Sir-" At this point, James chucked a Honeydukes' Ironhead Gobstopper at Sirius, which effectively shut him up and spared all present the agony of another serious/Sirius pun.

"Man, those gobstoppers are hard-" Sirius was about to bemoan his aching head with liberal use of his inner thespian once again, when he was interrupted by their compartment door opening.

"Good to see you putting those gobstoppers to stopping his gob, James," A red-head came in, smirking.

"Ah, Lily, ready to savage my ego so early on in the year?" Sirius twitched his head and his hair fell into his eyes, an act which probably would have most females below the age of twenty swooning or fainting.

Lily, however, had worked up a kind of resistance to Sirius Black over the past six years, and was unimpressed.

"I'm always ready, Sirius, but I'm not here for you this time,"

"Really? Might you be after the heart of my best mate over here then?" At this, Sirius grabbed James around the shoulder and grinned. "He'll be thrilled. He's been waiting for this sin-"

"Much as I would love to have the heart of our Head Boy-" James' heart skipped a beat. "I'm actually here to get him to go on our patrol around the train. Its three in the afternoon, and unless I'm very mistaken he had agreed to take the three o'clock slot with me."

"He remembers, and is ready to go with the much esteemed Head Girl, right now, if she wants. Not that he doesn't want to stay here and continue talking about himself in third person." James said, then grinned and stood when Lily laughed and backed out of the compartment, waiting.

"He's got it, bad." Sirius shook his head as James followed Lily out of the compartment, out of earshot, and bearing an uncanny resemblance to a puppy eager to please its master. Which is pathetic, Sirius mused, considering James is Head Boy as well as Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and really ought to show more pride in himself. But that's James, all round winner except in front of Lily Evans, in which case he's just one big sack of pathetic-ness.

"I hate to do it, but I must agree with you this one time," Remus agreed, with an air of resigned bemusement at his friend's general idiocy in front of Lily, though he must qualify that he had improved a lot over the past school year, to the point where the Marauders and Lily's group of friends are all on first name terms, and shouting matches between the two of them had been practically non-existent for quite a while now.

Probably the best endorsement of the positive effects of James' change would be Dumbledore's awarding of the Head Boy post to James, although he wasn't even a prefect to start with. (That prefect job would go to Remus, and he was, sad to say, not very effective at it.) Even Lily Evans, James' nemesis, had accepted his Head Boy-ship with nothing more than a mock faint that had made the prefects laugh at the prefect's meeting at the start of the train ride.

"Who's got what bad?" Peter finally poked his sandy haired head out of the pile of sweets and snacks to ask.

Sirius sighed.

"Never mind, go back to your food,"

"Don't mind if I do!" Peter grinned.

"You know, I really am surprised your animagus form's a rat and not a pig." Sirius commented dryly.

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Five or six compartments away from the Marauder's compartment, James grinning goofily, as he managed to make Lily laugh at one of his stories of his summer while they were patrolling the train.

"And it just exploded?" Lily gasped, laughing.

"Yep. Blew a hole right in Pete's pants, that killer marshmallow did," said James, extremely pleased with himself. "Binky was so overjoyed to have such a mess to clean up, the burgundy roast we had that night was the best I ever had!"

Lily erupted into another fit of laughter at the mental image of Peter's pants smouldering with a great big hole in the middle.

Finally calming down, Lily asked, "Who's Binky?"

"My family's house elf," James replied.

"Your family has a house elf?"

"Yeah,"

"Wow."

"Its nothing to 'wow' about," James replied, bewildered.

"But-but, that means you're rich!"

"Umm. Yeah?" James replied tentatively, not sure what was the correct response in this case, and knowing that saying anything unknowingly pig-headed, arrogant, or obnoxious would put him right at the business end of a hissy fit, courtesy of the short tempered red head he was, as of this moment, walking beside.

Lily scrutinized the boy in front of her, currently looking very uncomfortable at this discussion of his family's wealth. Somewhere over the past year, James had apparently transformed from a bullying dirt bag she thought she knew in their earlier years at Hogwarts to the much more palatable version of James Potter in front of her right now, and slowly over the past year Lily had gotten to know him, and though their relationship at first was extremely wary on her part, they were, for the most part, friends. And so, as friends are wont to do, Lily directed the topic away from what James obviously did not want to discuss.

"So did you manage to find out what was the fire that you made?"

"Sadly, no, or we could have used it to devastating effect in one of our pranks later this year," And he actually did look slightly forlorn, mentally going through the possibilities of having a killer marshmallow-making flame at his command.

Slightly thankful for the fact that such marshmallow-altering discoveries were forever lost to Maurauder-kind (she _was_ Head Girl, after all,and bound to have to clear up their messes this year just like all her predecessors), Lily looked away from James and gave a small smile.

"But enough about me. How was your summer?" James asked.

"Well…not too bad. My sister got married," Lily replied.

"You have a sister?" James looked surprised.

"Yeah, but I don't really talk to her much. She's a muggle, you know, and she doesn't really like all the magic and stuff I have."

Seemingly sensing that Lily was uncomfortable, James changed the subject this time, for which Lily was quite grateful.

"Well, speaking of muggles, Sirius saw this one outside his house and tried to pick her up using his extremely limited knowledge of muggle fashion, and the look on the girl's face was priceless-"

And so their conversation continued in this vein for a while, friendly and funny and never too personal, as they walked up and down the length of the train, which was pointless, really, cause stuff seldom happens so early on in the school year, and even the Marauders knew that.

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As with all good things (and any conversation with Lily Evans was an extremely good thing to James), the patrol eventually came to an end, and they headed back to the Marauder's compartment, passing the over-zealous 5th year prefects on the way.

James wrenched open the compartment door, ready to say goodbye, see you later, and any other number of random, civil, and un-big-headed farewell comments, and to his very big surprise, found that the Marauders were not alone.

A chorus of "Hi James!" came from within the compartment. More specifically, from the two girls and three guys within the compartment. The two girls were, respectively, the brown-haired, sweeter than honey Alice Prewett, whom James knew quite well from their pure blood social circles, and the Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Kelly Thompson, with a head full of short, dirty blond hair and all her tomboy charm.

James paused. While it was true that he and Lily have been much more civil to each other over last year and as a result the Gryffindor boys and girls in his year have become much closer, sitting together in the same train compartment on the Hogwarts Express was still a bit of a surprise for him, and the fact that the whole bunch of Marauders and girls were mixing so well it was like they knew each other their entire lives did not help.

Nonetheless, James was known throughout the school for his outgoing personality (even if he did say so himself) and he plopped down on his seat without further ado.

Lily, on the other hand, seemed to have slightly more difficulty in comprehending the situation, though after a couple of seconds and "Sit down Lily!"s the Head Girl settled down on the only remaining seat, next to James, with good grace, considering half a year ago she probably would have spasmed and foamed in the mouth if forced to sit next to James.

"So?" Lily arched an eyebrow at her friends while asking.

"So what?" Coming off from the irrepressible Kelly it was immediately construed as being cheeky, which it was.

"So, do you two care to explain this situation?" Lily explained patiently, long used to Kelly's quirks.

"Why, the way you asked it, one would think you were less than happy at sharing a compartment with the famous, brilliant and ridiculously good looking Sirius Black!" Sirius proclaimed in a typical asking-for-it tone, earning him eye rolls and smacks on the head all round.

"Well, you got the ridiculous part correct at least." Kelly giggled, and continued. "Tara and her gang came into our compartment 'cause _there's no other place to sit, _" She said, imitating her roommates irritating high-pitched squeal.

"And being the nice people that we are, we did not have the heart to tell them how obnoxious they were to chase them away, and decided to look for another compartment while supposedly out to the toilet."

"Which then landed them in the company of the gallant and ever so attractive Marauders, here," Sirius finished for her. No one even bothered to hit him this time. Sirius would always be Sirius.

"Something doesn't fit," Lily replied.

"Like what?"

"Like, since when were you considered a nice person?" Sniggers all round as Kelly decided to show her displeasure in a more practical, or rather physical, way.

Later on in the train ride, as the sun was setting to give a glorious sunset, the conversation turned nostalgic.

"You guys realize this is our last year here?" Alice asked everyone.

"Yeah." Remus replied. The mood in the compartment, exuberant just moments before (they were talking about the dynamite marshmallows again, with the attendant comments on Peter's burning pants), turned more somber. Not sad, but just more solemn, more serious. (A/N: NOT Sirius damnit.)

"Our last train ride to Hogwarts." Someone added.

"Last chance to piss Minnie off when we know she really loves us." This, of course, had to be Sirius. No one else called McGonagall Minnie and survived to tell the tale.

"Last chance to win the Quidditch Cup," James, Quidditch Captain for a reason, chipped in.

"Last Start-of-Year Feast," Added Peter wistfully.

"Oh c'mon guys, what are we, a bunch of Slytherins?" Sirius asked, to no one in particular.

"You know, since its our last year, last time to do anything here really, we should cherish it, live life to the fullest, instead of moping around like this," Sirius continued, obviously leading up to an idea all of his own.

"Since when do you live life to anything but its fullest?" Remus inquired.

"A technicality, my friend, a technicality. You know, since this is our last year here and all, I propose something grand."

"Grander than our Start-of-Ter-" Peter was roughly cut off mid-speech by James, but it was too late- the girls had caught on to the reference to the Maurauder's annual Start-of-Term Feast prank.

"Oh dear god, what do you idiots have planned this time round?" Lily sighed.

"Sorry Evans-darling, but it's a surprise and no way in hell is any one of us going to tell you." Sirius grinned, then watched for the inevitable explosion.

"Don't call me darling, Black, and if the prank in any way hurts or attacks any student I swear-" Green eyes flashed, but was cut off by Sirius again. The whole compartment was already in various stages of amusement at Lily's patented way of...expressing her feelings.

"Relax, its nothing dangerous. Back me up here, Prongs. Right, Prongs? Prongs?"

"Uh…yeah…its really nothing this time Lily. Really." James mumbled, not able to meet Lily's eyes totally.

Sirius sighed. James was always hopeless when it came to his lady love.

"Yeah. So, ready for my idea now, guys?" Sirius continued.

The rest of the compartment sat up a little straighter. Sirius' ideas were, ironically, seldom serious, but when they were, they tended to be either insane, dangerous, disastrous, or all three to varying degrees, hence their apprehension.

"I suggest, we make this our year."

Silence followed that slightly anti-climactic statement.

"Um..Sirius? What the fish?" Remus, in his typically understated way, expressed the sentiments of everyone present.

"I mean, we do everything this year. And I really mean everything; we win the Quidditch Cup, we raid the kitchens so often the house elves cry for mercy, we break our own record in terms of detentions served, we thrash the Common Room with random parties, and we prank everyone so frigging hard and fast the school will forever remember 1978/1979 as the Year of the Marauders!"

Silence, again, followed this extraordinary pronouncement.

Finally, James broke the silence.

"I think its brilliant!"

And with that, the year of the Marauders began.

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**A/N: I didn't expect this to be done so soon, but truly, economics is dry. Please review and tell me what you think of the story! And since the prologue was only posted yesterday its incredible that I already got a review! Thank you very very much to bellatrixmate! You got your fast update yeah? Also, I'm a bit confused as to the year the Marauders actually started their last year at Hogwarts, so if anyone could please enlighten me I would be very grateful.  
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	3. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

**A/N: Hehehe, what's the Marauder's grand Start-of-Year prank? Read on and find out! The title of this chapter, by the way, refers to an unnatural fear of long words, which is kind of an oxymoron considering its length, which is so ridiculous i had to hyphenate it to let save it properly. Hope you enjoy! ****(Longer, more detailed author's note at the end, together with personal review responses.)**

**Disclaimer: I'm not richer than the Queen of England, even if I would certainly like to be, so I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER.**

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**Chapter 2: Hippopotomonstroses-quippedaliophobia**

Lily did not have long to wait to find out what exactly the Marauder's prank was, as it was traditionally executed at the annual Start-of-Year Feast, and right now, everyone was so hungry it was generally accepted it would be worth it to endure the prank if they could only get some food.

Oh, how wrong they were.

The carriage ride went undisturbed.

The sorting was conducted without a hitch, and even Sirius managed to stop snickering evilly long enough to applaud the new Gryffindor first years.

The Headmaster's speech was also surprisingly uninterrupted, and by then the Slytherins, long the butt of the Marauder's jokes, were beginning to get truly worried.

And then it happened. Or rather, it did NOT happen.

When Professor Dumbledore ended his speech (cheerful and short, but cautious and guarded if one listened hard enough about the slight references to recent Dark incidents.) with a hearty "Tuck in!" the school eagerly turned to the assorted plates and bowls in front of them, expecting the usual glorious feast to appear out of nowhere, as usual.

Except it did not. No food, no pumpkin juice, and definitely no dessert.

The mumbles started. Dumbledore tried his cue for the house elves to present the feast again, but no amount of "Tuck in!"s were enough to coax the food to appear.

Funnily enough, the students could smell the delicious feast, but there was nothing in front of them, which was really the cruellest form of torture when you consider the students were all starving and salivating at the aromas greeting their nose but thoroughly unable to figure out where their food was and thus unable to consume said food.

And through all of this, of course, the four 7th year Gryffindor boys were having a ball of a time laughing their own pants off at the outraged expressions on their fellow schoolmates' faces. ("Where the hell's my food?! I DEMAND my steak and kidney pie!" and other assorted cries of dismay were discernable through the uproar the Great Hall was now in.)

"As humorous as I find this situation, Misters Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew, I suggest you four return the Feast to Hogwarts, as hungry adolescents are certainly a dangerous breed." Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling with an air of mischief not unlike the one the Marauders had surrounding them.

"It's right here, Professor, we didn't exactly hide the food or anything." Remus Lupin, acting spokesperson of the group and currently the only one of the Marauders not gasping for breaths in between celebrating their own brilliance, replied, though not without a wide grin on his face.

"Indeed? Then I might suggest," Dumbledore stuck his fork into what seemed to be the thin air in front of him and lifted it to his mouth. "That invisible pot roast tastes even better than normal pot roast, if only because it forces one to focus on the taste and smell of the meat,"

And so, the school joined its Headmaster in enjoying what would be known for generations to come as the "invisible Marauder Feast".

* * *

"Man, you should have seen the look on your face Lils, you looked ready to kill all of us right then and there!" Sirius laughed, draping an arm over the Head Girl's shoulder as the four of them caught up to the girls after the feast.

"Well, you of all people should know better than to deny Lily Evans food, considering the fact that both of you have appetites that can rival a giant's," Alice said, smiling.

"Well, I knew all along that our food was just right in front of us, so really, I saw no reason to worry,"

"But you did not see fit to inform anyone else of the disappearing Feast stunt you four were going to pull, so it was quite fortunate Remus told the school before the four of you got murdered." Kelly reasoned, as the group continued down the hallways of Hogwarts.

"That was the fun, no?" James grinned one of the goofiest grins anyone had seen in recent memory, to which the group could not resist but laugh along to.

"How did you idiots manage to pull it off though? I would be inclined to think you used an Invisibility Potion on all the food, but you had no chance to go down to the kitchens today-" Lily began, interest piqued now that her ravenous hunger (as Alice called it) was, however temporarily, sated.

"Lily, Lily, Lily, would you really think the great Marauders would reveal their incredible and amazing secrets to anyone?" Sirius cut her off in what was supposed to be an intriguing and mysterious voice, but as is usual with Sirius, it failed completely.

Lily gave the four boys a scrutinizing gaze, and in an extremely condescending tone replied, " Yes."

"You gotta admit she's much better at the drama than you, Pads," James laughed.

"Ah shut up."

* * *

"You know, you have to admit that the Disillusionment Charm we cast was a brilliant bit of magic," Sirius opined as he lay back in their dormitory, after grabbing a quick shower. James stood and made a beeline for the bathroom.

"Absolutely brilliant!" Peter agreed.

"The adjustments we made to it to cover all cooked food in the hall were pretty cool, yes," Remus conceded, imitating Sirius' actions. While Sirius' flat was definitely good enough for the four boys over the summer nothing beat the Hogwarts four-poster beds. Remus was positive it was due to the house elves casting their own brand of hokey pokey magic on the beds that made them so comfortable, but never got to question one on this subject, with more important considerations on his mind most of the time, what with being a werewolf as well as the only sane member of the Marauders.

"My Transmogrification Charm idea would have made it so much better though, but _someone _had to go veto the idea just because-"

"Because it would not have been smart to have Slytherins bite into invisible rocks, you twit, now shut up about it." Remus snapped, but the amusement in his eyes gave his stern act away.

Peter sat on his own bed, between Sirius' and Remus', mentally weighing the pros and cons of joining in the conversation on either side. Eventually he decided to be 'cool' and help Sirius out.

"That's not true Moony, it would have been hilarious to see them chip their teeth and choke on sand,"

"Good man, Wormy." Peter fairly beamed at the statement, just as James came out of the shower. Remus rolled his eyes at the to imbeciles that were his friends.

Plopping down, on his bed, James carried an air of seriousness about, which, though slightly mollified by the ridiculous bright red Liverpool Larks (a Quidditch team James adored) pyjamas, was still enough to make his three roommates look up at him.

"This year-" He began, but the pronouncement was completed by Sirius.

"Will be the year?"

"Yeah I- Hey! How did you kno-"

"What you were going to say? Dude, I know you better than you know yourself, and that's a fact." Sirius proclaimed.

"What?! Tha-"

"That's ridiculous? Actually, no, its not."

"Damn it stop-"

"Interrupting you?" Sirius was having a fantastic time pissing off James more and more with every sentence he predicted correctly.

"As much as I love to see you torment Prongs, if you don't let him say what he's gonna say he's gonna blow," Remus finally interjected.

"Oh alright, but it's not like we don't all know what he's going to say anyway. Every single bloody ye-"

"What's James going to say?"

Sirius sighed. "Never mind, Wormy,"

"I was going to say, that this is the year, the year where I finally get Lily Evans to go out with me."

"Like I said, every single bloody year."

"Well, yes, but this year, I think you might actually do it, Prongs," Remus said thoughtfully.

"Really?" James immediately perked up. "You know, I didn't actually believe-"

"Yourself and you were just trying to make yourself fell better?" Sirius cut in again, standard issue Sirius Black cheeky grin #3 already in place.

"Stop that! Remus you were saying…?" James said, indignant but slightly hopeful.

"I was saying, this year Lily might actually agree to go out with you,"

"Really?"

"Yeah, now that your friends and all and you have Head duties together and she thinks you're less of a prick now and-"

"Moony, you're rambling again."

"Sorry."

"But you know, he does make a good point," Sirius acknowledged, uncharacteristically serious. (A/N: Hehe, couldn't resist, sorry.) "She does seem to have less of an inclination to murder you nowadays."

"Wow you're a real morale booster Pad, thanks." James replied dryly.

"Anytime. What would you guys do without the great Padfoot eh?" That was the cue for the other three to pummel Sirius to oblivion with pillows. Pillow fights in the magical world, were, of course, like most things, much more complicated, and consequentially, fun, than their counterparts in the Muggle world.

For starters, a combination of Levitation Charms and Hurling Hexes would ensure that unless the victim manages to grab his wand in time, which is unlikely, pillows would rain blows upon said victim mercilessly, not giving him a chance to retaliate, if the caster is good enough.

Which, unfortunately for Sirius Black, the Marauders were, having had lots of experience.

"Get this-thump-friggin'-thump-pillows-thump-off-thump-of-ME!"

* * *

History of Magic, as agreed upon by most students over the years at Hogwarts, was really pointless. It was as if the teachers deliberately it made it boring, what with the possible magical ways to spruce up the subject and their stupid, stubborn _refusal _to use them.

It is also agreed upon by students that putting History of Magic at the end of the day was not a really good idea, because a class that can make one fall asleep after one has just woken up would certainly be able to demonstrate its hypnotic effect very well at the end of a long, tiring day. And the 7th years' schooldays were, without a doubt, long and tiring.

Somehow, the teachers and the powers that be never got the message, because for every single year since her first at Hogwarts, Mondays has always ended with History with Magic for Lily Evans. Add to that the reason for which she was taking the whole blasted thing at all at NEWT level was because she wanted more exposure to the Magical world (or so she told Alice and Kelly at the start of last year when they shook their heads at disbelief at her cramped schedule.), and you have a very bored and sleepy Lily Evans.

It probably wouldn't have been half as bad if any of her friends, or even, God forbid, a Marauder (they always did brighten up any class even if Lily didn't approve of their methods, and right now she was desperate.) to be with in this class with her, but no. Kelly was way too…hyper, to take this class, and while Alice was too nice to ever say anything bad about practically anything at all the look of pitying incredulity on her face when Lily asked her about it was answer enough.

And she really couldn't imagine any of the Marauders voluntarily offering their brain cells to be massacred in such a dull way, except maybe Remus, but he told Lily he'd rather take Divination, where he was at right now, because he enjoyed the tea. Idiot.

Binns droned on and on and on…and on. Sometimes Lily swore the man would just up and die, come back as a ghost, and continue teaching as if nothing happened. He was _that_ detached from reality. Over the years he had called her a variety of names, ranging from the acceptable Miss Elliott to the simply ridiculous Miss Erasmus, and it did not help that he did not always look at whoever he was referring to and thus it was difficult to know if he was really talking to you or not. Not that he would have cared if the correct student answered.

The bell rang Lily's salvation and she rushed out of the class in record speed, intent on finding her friends in the Gryffindor Common Room and then grabbing some fried fish fillets. And she was really feeling like some marshmallow fondue for dessert.

Entering the Common Room, she found most of the Gryffindor 7th years in various stages of laziness from having lounged about for the better part of the last free period watching James and Sirius play what was evidently a very obnoxious game of chess.

_They made the chess board and pieces LIFE SIZED?_ Lily thought, outraged and amused at the same time, so she made her opinions known.

"You made the chess board and pieces LIFE SIZED? Of all the imbecilic-"

"Now, now Lils, be nice, you're beginning to sound like Remus now, with long and pointless words like imbecilic and that tone of weary outrage, which really just shows us how much you love us- OI YOU! Get your ass back on E6 and STOP TEMPTING HIS KNIGHT, NO MATTER HOW GOOD LOOKING YOU THINK HE IS!" Sirius roared at his queen, who was currently winking and giggling at James' white knight.

"Hey Lils," James grinned at his friend's antics, then continued apologetically. "Apparently, making the chess pieces larger also enlarges their personalities."

Lily was about to reply, when another suspiciously weary sounding voice spoke from the portrait hole.

"You made the chess board and pieces LIFE SIZED? Oh you imbeciles," Remus shook his head in a resigned way.

"Is imbecile a word for non-Prefects now? Cos' all you prefects are using that word to describe us now," Kelly spoke up, finally roused from her hibernation on the couch, cheeky smile in place.

"No, but it will be if you don't start moving to the Great Hall and let me eat to my heart's content." Lily replied.

"Oh fine, we'll continue this after dinner yeah?" Sirius said, with a questioning look at James.

"Can't, I've got that Head meeting with Lily and Dumbledore, remember? We go after dinner, yeah, Lils?" James, in turn, inquired of the Head Girl.

"Sure, as long as I get some food in me first,"

"Some?! You eat like a hippogriff!" Kelly remarked.

"Hey! I resent that," Lily pouted. James reddened slightly, but only Sirius noticed and grinned evilly at him in the Internationally Recognised Signal for _oh you're going to get hell in the dorms later._

"Well, lets go, I'm hungry too. Remus, you'll take over James' game later, right?" Sirius asked.

"Actually, I've got a lot of homework for Divination, and you should really get started too-"

"Oh c'mon Remy, have some fun!" He admonished his friend, but knew a lost cause when he saw one. "Anyone else up for a game? Pete? Alice?"

"I dunno, Si, I take twice the amount of time you guys do to finish my homework, and-"

Sirius looked at Alice with imploring eyes. "Oh alright, I'll play,"

"You know, Lily and Remus were right about you; you ARE an imbecile,"

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Oh shut up and let's go." Lily rolled her eyes, leading the way out of the Common Room. So, with the scary efficiency seventeen year olds have when it comes to food, they trooped out of Gryffindor Tower and reached the Great Hall just as food started blossoming out of the plates, much like they were supposed to the night before.

* * *

After dinner, Lily gave James a look that signalled she was done, and without further ado the two Heads proceeded up to the Headmaster's Office. The headmaster himself arrived seconds later in all his purple-robed glory, and, smiling genially all the while, gave the password to the gargoyles standing guard to his office.

"Cockroach Clusters,"

"Sure, but I'm not all for your tastes, Headmaster." The massive hunk of rock to their left replied.

Dumbledore nodded in reply, as if a stone statue discussed his dietary habits with him everyday (which it probably did), and motioned for James and Lily to follow him in.

Both Heads had been to his office numerous times, Lily as a Prefect reporting rule-breakers, and James mostly as the rule-breakers Lily tended to report, and so the grandiose surroundings did not surprise them.

"Professor, sir? You do know that Cockroach Clusters are really made of real cockroaches, right?" James ventured. Lily marvelled at his audacity, but did not know if she was angry or impressed.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, Mr Potter, on good terms as I am with most of Hogsmeade's residents, I know exactly what goes into Mr Honeyduke's sweets. However, once one gets over the initial shock of eating a creature generally regarded as unhygienic the subtle flavours become very enjoyable. Cockroach Clusters are also really quite acceptable when you consider the worst side effects consist of involuntary vomiting and nothing much worse, while some sweets like Acid Pops have been known to burn so badly the victim died."

His voice was grave and serious, though his eyes were twinkling merrily as the three of them passed through the oaken doors. James and Lily grinned, but declined as the Professor offered them a couple of Cockroach Clusters.

"No? Really? They ARE pretty good, contrary to popular belief, which, to me, is exceptionally unfair and unfounded considering most people have never tried the sweet before in their lives," _He was having way too much fun with this Cockroach business,_ thought Lily, as Dumbledore did indeed seem to be enjoying himself while extolling the virtues of a disgusting clump of dead cockroaches.

"Forgive the digressions of an old man," Dumbledore chuckled as he saw the two students increasingly showing disbelief that their potty old Headmaster really _did_ like to eat cockroaches.

"The purpose of this meeting, of course, is firstly for me to congratulate the two of you on your appointments," He began, conveniently ignoring, of course, that it was he who had appointed the two of them in the first place, and waved aside their thanks.

"The second, and more important subject if this meeting," Dumbledore continued. "Is for me to tell you of your duties."

"As Heads, you will assume mostly the same duties as the Prefects, as well as some supervisory roles among the Prefects, such as ensuring no abuse of power takes place," At this point Dumbledore peered over his half moon glasses at James, but his expression was unreadable. "As well as scheduling and organising things like night patrols and such."

"In addition, there will be several school events you will both be in charge of at various times of the year. Right now a Christmas/Yule Ball is in the works, and the faculty will inform you two again when more details are finalised." Lily nodded in response.

"You are also expected to be role models for the rest of the student population here at Hogwarts, and we, meaning the faculty, expect nothing but the best in everything from the two of you." Again, Dumbledore paused to look intently at James. This time, he had the grace to look sheepish, knowing full well his usual behaviour was far from exemplary.

"And the last, and probably the most important thing I have to say tonight, is that I must ask of the two of you tonight," Everyone seemed to sit up a little straighter.

"Is to please look out for any…undesired activities. I'm sure the both of you are aware of certain…happenings outside of the school, in the world at large?" Dumbledore inquired.

When both James and Lily nodded their affirmatives at their knowledge of the "happenings', the Headmaster continued.

"Then please, help the faculty look out for clues of Voldemort's influence. This is a school, not a recruiting ground for armies and Dark forces, and I wish it to remain that way." It was a testament to the strength of will of all three present that none of them had any visible reaction to the name Voldemort being used to blatantly, or to the Headmaster's admission that he fears the Dark Lord's recruitment efforts may bear fruit.

"Sure thing, Prof," James replied for the two of them.

"Very well," Dumbledore nodded gravely. "Do either of you have any questions?"

Lily was quite surprised to see James nodding; the cocksure and headstrong Head Boy seldom showed any uncertainty.

"Actually…I was wondering…and I'm sure Lily wants to hear this as well, but what made you give the post of Head Boy to me? I mean, there are a couple of people I'm sure would have fit the mould better than me, and off the top of my head already there's Moo-I mean Remus and the Ravenclaw prefect guy, Carter whatshisname, so I was really bewildered when I got the badge over the summer, sir." He added as an afterthought.

And James was right; Lily did want to hear this, not because she had no faith on him or whatsoever, but because she really thought it would be someone else. Anyone else.

Dumbledore, once again, chuckled in that infuriating ways of his that indicated he was going to be a right arse about revealing stuff again, and said, "I'm afraid that's for me to know, and the two of you to find out, James."

They sat in silence for a while, before Dumbledore started again, "Now if there aren't anymore questions…?"

James and Lily both shook their heads, so the Headmaster dismissed the both of them. On their way out, however, he left them with several parting words.

"Oh and James? If you manage to keep that badge till you graduate I may tell you what influenced my decision on you. Good night to both of you, and I know you will make the faculty and me proud."

* * *

Sirius plopped down on his seat, staring down his opponent across the dance-floor sized chessboard.

"Ready, Prewett?" He quirked an eyebrow in challenge.

Alice rolled her eyes, and replied, "Yes, just start."

"Such flippance would only get you defeat, Miss Prewett. Pawn to B3."

And as the game wore on it became evident that Alice would probably win handily. Sirius started to become desperate.

"Knight to E4, bring his frigging pawn down!"

"Are you nuts?! He's under cover from his queen! You want me to sacrifice myself for a useless pawn?!" The ceramic man-on-a-horse retorted. Sirius was indignant.

"Just do it, you useless lump of porcelain!"

"Damn it, you're the most sadistic player I've ever seen! Do you actually _enjoy_ seeing your pieces get slaughtered?" The knight replied, angered, but nevertheless charging into E4 and running over the pawn as he complained.

"Queen to E4," Alice announced in a voice sweeter than burnt sugar.

The knight groaned.

"You see, now look what you've done to me- ARGH!" He screamed as the queen proceeded to calmly bash his face in.

"Ah, he deserved what he got," Sirius said, shaking his head at the offending knight, now on the floor. "Such vulnerability."

"Sirius?" Remus looked from his work and asked.

"Yeah?"

"Where did you learn that word?"

"What word? All the words I- oh alright, James gave me word-of-the-day toilet paper as a housewarming gift."

All within earshot burst into laughter.

"You _read_ your toilet paper?!" Remus sputtered while having a good laugh at his friend's expense.

"Well…The note that came with the gift said, 'Hey mate, saw this and immediately taught of you. You've gotta learn _some_ things some how, and this is my way of expressing my desperation for you to learn some thing. Anything. Really. Cheers, James.' And I have to say I agree." Sirius said sheepishly.

"I gotta ask James about this one when gets back. Word-of-the-day toilet paper, honestly."

"Probably only you imbeciles would manage to think of something like that," Kelly added, shaking with laughter.

"So, you're a regular sesquipedalianist now, are you?" Remus remarked, still laughing.

"A-a what?! I swear, Remus, you're a freak show all on your own. Was that even a word?!" Sirius replied.

"As a matter of fact, it-"

"The only freak around here is you, Sirius Black!" The black ceramic knight shouted, cutting of Remus' would be monologue. Apparently while everyone was having a right good laugh at Sirius the chess pieces had conspired to rebel against their idiotic human masters, and right now the ceramic people were looking, tall, tough, and undeniably hostile.

"Charge!" The knight yelled, and the chess pieces went on a rampage throughout the Common Room.

"Run! Run for your lives! ARGH! I'm hit, I'm hit, Remus! Save me! Argh!" Sirius did truly have a cause for his dramatics this time as the black knight he argued with earlier made a beeline for him. Remus rolled his eyes, stunned the knight and dragged Sirius and a squeaking Peter up the stairs to their dorms. Lily and James were going to have a fit when they got back.

* * *

Walking down the hallways of Hogwarts together in companionable silence, James and Lily were both thinking about what Dumbledore had just told them, about their new duties and how they were going to go out about fulfilling them, about how…

About a lot of things, actually. James broke the silence first.

"Hey Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"You think Voldemort's really going to try something in the school this year?"

Lily, while shocked by James' casual throwing about of the name, did not bat an eyelid. It seemed most people bent on opposing the self styled Dark Lord was using the name and she decided, from then on, to use the name itself as well.

"Well…I don't really know, but the way Dumbledore put it seemed to show that he didn't really expect it, but wanted to be sure."

"Yeah, that's the feeling I got as well."

Silence set in again. Lily's brows were furrowed, and James decided to ask something that, if he had tried a year ago, would certainly resulted in at least a few missing appendages.

"Lils?"

"Yeah?"

"Are…are you worried about your family? They're Muggles, right?"

Lily gave him a scrutinizing look, searching for signs that he was joking. She didn't, for which she was grateful for, and decided to tell the truth.

"Yeah. I'm just…scared, I guess. I know it's silly, because there's no way Vo-Voldemort would be interested in a random Muggle-born like me, much less my family, but I can't help it, you know?"

James gave her a look that she couldn't figure out, and replied, "Don't be ridiculous. You're the Head Girl, one of the most brilliant students in our level, and definitely one of the prettiest. You're like a walking signpost that screams out the flaws in Voldemort's blood purity arguments!"

Lily blushed, and saw that he really wasn't joking. She flushed a deeper shade of red, and tried to cover it up by looking away from James.

"Well, I just-"

She was spared the agony of trying to find an answer that she could give without looking back and screaming in embarrassment, when they were interrupted by a group of students standing in front of the two Heads.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't our dear Head Boy and Head Girl. Went for a little late night excursion, perhaps?" The leader of the pack of Slytherins and Sirius' Black cousin, Bellatrix Black, sneered. Her air of menace not withstanding, she still managed to give off an impression of dark beauty that Lily envied.

"It's just nine, still miles away from curfew. Besides, we are the Head students; we can do whatever the hell we want at whatever time we choose," James replied with an air of disdain. "The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of you and your friends."

"Abusing power so early on in the year, blood traitor? Still, I guess, better than you than my loser of a cousin," She said, gesturing towards Regulus Black, who grimaced at the mention of his disgraceful brother.

"Name calling already? I would have thought you had more arguments than that when you started picking a figh-" Lily began, but was cut off.

"Silence, you unworthy Mudblood,"

James fairly roared at that, despite the fact that they were, currently, outnumbered almost by three to one.

"Awww, is wee Potter angry Bella called his girlfriend a Mudblood?" Bellatrix laughed, speaking in a most condescending tone.

"Take that back, you bi-" James continued angrily, but was stopped by Lily pulling on his arm to get him to calm down.

"James!" She hissed.

"No need to hold your boyfriend back on my account, Evans, we were just leaving. Good thing running into you though, Potter, cos' I wanted to send a warning to Thaddeus Potter…through you."

James froze at the mention of his father, and Lily was fairly shocked. What warning could a Hogwarts student give to the head of one of the Magical world's foremost and most eminent pureblood families?

"Tell your father, Potty, that the Dark Lord does not take kindly to being rebuked…especially in so public a place as Valerian's."

And with the Bellatrix Black and her posse left, leaving a stunned James Potter in their wake, with Lily desperately trying to figure everything out.

"James. James!"

"Huh? Wha..? Oh. Sorry for zoning out there. We should probably get moving," He gestured in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower, trying to take Lily's attention away from what just transpired. It didn't work.

Lily started walking alongside James, but would not be deterred.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked, and he sighed.

"It's…My father, or rather my family, is, as you should know, very outspoken against Voldemort," James began. Lily nodded.

"Over…over the summer, my family went out for a formal dinner, you know, to celebrate my mum's birthday, when who should we meet at Valerian's but the one and only Nathan Lestrange. Needless to say my dad and Lestrange got into a loud argument about Voldemort's recent …actions, and my dad ended up shouting that such savagery and evilness has no place in the world. The warning was probably about that incident." James sighed, obviously troubled by this development.

"But, if Bellatrix was the one to deliver Voldemort's warning to you, doesn't that mean she's already a-a," Lily couldn't bring herself to say the name give to Voldemort's supporters, unable to comprehend that anyone still in school would already be accepted.

"A Death Eater, yeah." James finished heavily. "Or at least she's already lined up to be one, and the moment she leaves Hogwarts he'll zap her with that horrible sign of his, and-"

"Alright, alright, I get the idea, please stop saying it!"

Silence set in again, but much more solemn and foreboding this time, their footsteps echoing off the walls.

"James?" Lily ventured, her voice timid.

"Yeah?" James face cleared of its frown abruptly as he turned to face the redhead. Lily considered her question.

"What's Valerian's?"

James smiled. Lily, being Muggle born, would naturally know nothing of the most famous and classy establishment Wizarding Britain had to offer.

"It's a restaurant, Lils, opened about 400 years ago, and anyone wanting a grand effect when hosting any function goes to Valerian's, cos' if that place ain't grand then no other place would be grand enough."

"Oh. I…"

"I know you've never heard of it, Lils, its ok, you don't have to feel bad about anything." He smiled at her then, and she couldn't help but smile back despite her current inferiority complex. "Maybe one day I'll bring you out to all the Wizarding places one has to go to."

Lily's heart skipped a beat for an inexplicable reason. "You would?"

At this point in time they had already reached the portrait hole that opened into the Gryffindor Common Room. James and Lily both climbed in to find that their friends had already retired to the dorms despite the early hour, an unusual occurrence, perhaps explained by the wreckage of the Common Room that was evidently caused by a dozen life-sized chess pieces.

Lily rolled her eyes. She knew it! Nothing good could come of an idea from The Imbecile, otherwise known as Sirius Black. The two Heads gave each other a look that said 'let's leave the house elves to this and go up to bed, pretending we did NOT see anything.' The message was conveyed effectively and they both headed for their respective dorms, sidestepping what looked like stunned, man-sized chess pieces on the floor.

As Lily got on to the first step of the staircase that led to her dorms, James spoke again.

"Hey Lils?"

Lily turned. James smiled that crooked half-smile that had won him so many admirers in the past, and looked her in her emerald eyes.

"I'd take you anywhere you want."

* * *

**A/N : Hehehehe I had a lot of fun doing this chapter, cause I got to think up of all the retardness that the Marauders are capable of. The word-of-the-day toilet paper idea came from the American sitcom Friends though, so not mine! I do love Joey's pure idiotic moments though hehehehe. Sirius and Joey are pratically the same guy, no? If I got to decide the casting for a Marauder era movie my first name down would be Matt le Blanc for the role of Sirius Black, cause really, they are that alike. On the next part of the chapter, James is so...awwwww, yesyesyes? I was inspired from reading the latest issue of the manga Mahou Sensei Negima, where the hero's father promised the hero's mother : "I'll take you anywhere." Awwwwww. So? Tell me what you think! Thanks, as always, in advance!

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**TO:**

**Ben: Thanks, I'm glad you liked my story!**

**Merly: I'm really glad you liked my story, but no amount of werewolf threats would make me budge, y'hear? Lol, kidding, but really, thanks.**

**M. Poe: Thanks for all the suggestions, and I'm glad you liked at least a part of my fic. As for James' voice and thoughts, I thought I'd model him a bit after myself, seeing as I AM a 17 year old boy, but I guess I sound more like a 14 year old girl than I thought =(. I tried making him more mature sounding in this chapter. About the description portion, I do agree with you, and cannot believe I fell into the same trap I always notice when reading other's stories, but I'll keep it in mind for any future descriptions. Thanks again, and I hope you'll find this chapter an improvement!**

**Rider Arya Svit-Kona: Glad to see you liked it! Thanks for the review, and in return I hope you'll find what happens 'next' (i.e this chapter) satisfactory!**


	4. Spirit

**A/N: About the scene in the girl's dormitory, I must first clarify I am a guy and have never been to a girl's dormitory in my life ever so I have no idea what you people do inside there, so forgive the brievity of that scene and if anything sounds weird, let me know!**

**Disclaimer: Don't sue, I'm no JK Rowling and even if you won the lawsuit all you'd get is my double-digit bank account balance!**

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**Chapter 3: Spirit.**

"I'd take you anywhere?! What kind of an idiotic pick up line was that?!" Sirius screamed at his friend. Predictably, James had told his friends about everything that had happened the moment he got back to his dormitory, and, predictably, Sirius had gone on and on about the friend's general stupidity.

"I did think it was kinda cheesy," James replied sheepishly. "But it wasn't a pick up line."

"No it wasn't. And I think it's cute." Remus remarked, looking up from the book he was currently buried in.

"Thanks mate," James grinned at his werewolf friend.

"Seriously, Moony," Sirius rolled his eyes at his friends. "You think it's _cute_?! You're a guy! Nothing is supposed to be cute to you!"

Smiling at the black-haired boy's indignant outburst, Moony retreated back into his book. Of the four Marauders, he was probably the only one who could read till his eyes were more red than white, and keep going, simply for the sake of reading.

Sirius never understood it, and somehow Remus doubted he ever will, and Peter took far too long to comprehend anything he read to make a book interesting to him.

James was probably the closest to Remus in that respect, but he still never read anything unless absolutely nessecsary, dictated by the teachers, or, of course, Lily Evans was reading it. He really was one hopeless little boy when it came to her.

"So…you think I said the right thing, Rem?" James asked hopefully.

Remus laughed.

"Yes, but you don't have to be so afraid and careful of what you say around her now. She sees you as a friend already. Just be yourself."

"See, that is NOT a good idea. Prongs being himself would just allow Lils to see the true blue James Potter, which I, no matter what you guys think, insist is ridiculous and beyond hope." Sirius ribbed.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Pads," James replied dryly.

"Anytime."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the girl's dormitories, three of the 7th year Gryffindor girls were having a similar conversation.

"Aww, James is so sweet!" Kelly gushed. Alice smiled and nodded in agreement.

"You think?" Lily asked, arching her eyebrow.

"Yes we think, we're not stupid you know Lils, even if you beat us in every subject," Kelly continued.

"You know what I mean you dolt. Oh, you're hopeless. Alice? A little help here?"

"Well, I do think James is very sweet." Alice replied, brown eyes flashing in the way they did when she was amused about anything.

Lily rolled her eyes, knowing that her friends knew _exactly_ what she was asking about, and were simply being difficult and annoying. Kind of like Sirius Black sometimes, in that he's brilliant, but behaves in a totally idiotic way.

"What I meant to ask," Lily began, after calming down and telling herself that twenty years in Azkaban was not a prospect she particularly relished. "Was what you idiots thought he _meant._"

Alice and Kelly recognized the look in her eyes and the forced calmness in her voice, and sniggered, knowing she was about to explode at them, best friends or no. Her temper was really quite something.

"Relax, Lil, we know what you're talking about." Alice grinned. No one accused the either of them of being stupid, after all. "As cute as James was being I thought the answer was obvious."

"Well it isn't." Lily glared.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, baby," Kelly smiled. "All we're saying is…you know…"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The volcano formerly known as Lily Evans finally exploded in a violent eruption of anger.

And what did Alice and Kelly do? They laughed their asses off, of course. Lily continued glaring at them, trying extremely hard not to shout at them again, which did not work very well, for if anyone were to be in the Gryffindor Common Room at that time they would be extremely alarmed at the sounds coming out of the seventh year girls' dormitories right around now.

* * *

"For the last time, Sirius, we have to go to class because that's what we're in school for, and we'd be better off studying instead of wasting our time lazing around." Remus sighed. If he had a sickle for every morning the Marauders had this conversation…let's just say he would have been able to buy his way into werewolf emancipation, to say nothing of half the Ministry.

"Pranking, Moony, pranking. Not wasting our time away, pranking." Sirius retorted, to no avail.

"I do know the difference, Sirius." Moony replied with an air of indifference, sidestepping a bunch of fourth years.

The Marauders were on their way to one of their few common lessons: Defence Against the Dark Arts. The girls had gone to the ladies', and had told them not to wait, which all four of them had praised Merlin for under their breaths.

Not the most constructive way of spending one's time, waiting around for girl's to be done in the bathrooms. Merlin knows what they get up to in there that takes them two eternities and forbade anyone of them from entering one ALONE OH MY GOD.

"You'd think you would, Moony, after six and more years of being a Marauder, but no, I'm sorry to announce, you really don't."

"I do, you overgrown toddler. And if you're so against going to lessons then what are you doing here, at the Defence classroom?"

They had just arrived at the lesson they all excelled at (well, three of them. Peter…did not particularly excel at anything in general.), courtesy of their many encounters with Dark creatures (werewolves expecially, though one couldn't_ imagine_ why), frequent excursions into the Forbidden Forest, as well as knowledge of potions teenage boys really shouldn't be aware of gleaned while researching for pranks.

"We've got no homework due today right, guys?" James asked, cutting off the argument.

"Nope. Its only the second day of school James," Remus replied, smiling at his friend's newfound diligence.

"I'm disappointed Jamesie. Second day of school be damned, what happened to the days where James Potter wouldn't be caught dead doing homework of any kind at any time of the year?" Sirius remarked.

"That was before the Lily-wooing days, no?" Remus joined in on the teasing, wicked grin on his face, making him look distinctly wolfish.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny guys. Now can we not discuss my Lily-wooing days?" James replied, resigned.

"No, its our duty as close friends and whatnot to ensure that you do not get a day of peace from the moment we find out about your…ah…little crush on Lily." Sirius laughed.

"But James' crush on Lily has been huge! Where've you guys been in the past couple of years?" Peter quipped, looking extremely confused.

The other three sighed, and was spared answering by the entrance of Professor Abhay, as well as three particular girls looking very relieved to be on time.

* * *

There was a surprisingly large flock of letter-bearing owls at lunch that day. (Mostly they just come down for food at lunch because apparently the owlery food is terrible.)

The chatter died down fairly abruptly as many noticed, at the same time, that a couple of these letters were black in colour.

James' owl, Mercury, landed in front if him. A black letter was tied to its foot, and its expression was seemingly sorrowful and pitying. The noise level fell even further all along the Gryffindor table and the atmosphere in the Great Hall became apprehensive, as several other students received their black letters.

Hands trembling, James untied the letter from Mercury and he flew off immediately, as if he could not bear to see James' reaction. Unfurling the letter, James' eyes scanned the parchment rapidly.

Without warning, he stood up, ramrod straight, and stalked out of the Great Hall, letter left on the table. The Ravenclaw table was now in uproar as Kenneth Cole buried his head in his hands, his friends putting arms around him.

Sirius picked up the letter. The others looked expectantly at him.

"It's his parents."

* * *

Sirius found his best mate in the Owlery Tower, sitting with his face towards the window, Mercury on his shoulder, providing a comforting presence.

"Hey, mate." Sirius started.

James turned. Sirius, expecting to find a face full of tears, was startled to find perfectly dry eyes.

"Hey," He replied, smiling. The smile did not reach his eyes. He seemed to have aged a dozen years in a matter of hours, seemed to have been forced to grow up much more over the last two hours than in his last seventeen years.

"You okay?" Sirius asked, placing himself next to James.

"Yeah. I guess."

"We're all here for you, you know that right?"

"Yeah." He smiled that joyless smile again, reassuring. "What about you?"

"Wha-" Sirius sputtered, surprised again.

"You know, they were your parents as much as they mine. They loved you as a son."

Sirius understood.

"I know. But, don't get me wrong, I love them and I am extremely grateful to them for that summer, but no matter what you were still their real son and I was never as close to them as you were. And I'm really sad for them, but I really am more worried for you right now. We all are, even Lily." Sirius answered, trying a bit of humour for a bit of emotion from his friend.

"Yeah? That's cool." James really smiled at that last part. "I'm going to be fine, you know."

Sirius did not miss the 'going to be' part.

"Okay." He replied, and did not say a word more, understanding James needed companionship, as well as time to think, much like Mercury did.

* * *

As day faded to night and lessons ended the rest of the Marauders as well as Lily, Alice, and Kelly came in.

All could never hope to understand his pain at that moment in time, but all were there for him.

And they sat, facing the world outside, together.

* * *

**A/N: I'm extremely sorry for the short chapter and the long time it took me to update, but my father was diagnosed with cancer and I just couldn't bring myself to write anything. Once I started, I knew the theme of this chapter, and I promise my next chapter would be longer and have more in the way of the reaction to the...event that occurred in this chapter. Meanwhile, reviews are, as ever, very much welcomed. I must say I was slightly disappointed as the counter showed many people read my story, even put it on their favourite or alert lists, yet could not find the 5 minutes needed to review. So, I hope you enjoyed the story, and hope you would tell me how you feel about this chapter, and this story as a whole.

* * *

**

**Reviewers:**

**Thanks to all!**

**Volleyballlover123: I'm glad you like the story, and I hope you would like this new chapter.**

**Amaramichelle: Thanks! The chessboard idea was really just a random brainchild of five minutes, but as I wrote it developed into a full fledged monster. I had a good laugh out of it as well. =D**

**Rider Arya Svit-Kona: Thanks for reading and reviewing, and I'm glad you liked the story. Hope this new chapter is up to mark!**


	5. Aid and Comfort to the Enemy

**Chapter 4: Aid and Comfort to the Enemy**

Over the next two weeks Hogwarts seemed like a morgue to most students and staff. Probably the only people in the castle capable of sustaining a cheerful mood for any amount of time were the Slytherins, and even then some did look sorry and a couple of Quidditch acquaintances and mortal enemies even came over to offer their condolences to James, as well as Kenneth Cole and the Monroe twins, all of whose families' had been attacked.

And when Voldemort attacks people actually sigh in relief to hear that the victims are in Saint Mungo's.

The mood had gotten so dreary even the teachers were wishing (veryveryveryvery_very_ deep down in their hearts, of course,) that another Marauder prank would soon be on the way. However, with their ringleader James Potter so downcast these days no one had the heart, or the guts, given the way the other three were always with him with grim looks on their faces, to request or even mention a prank.

And so it was this kind of mood three of the Marauders found themselves in the midst of one fine Friday evening. Not helping the situation was the fact that the full moon was tomorrow night and Remus Lupin was not, therefore, at his best.

"Moony?" Sirius asked while drowsing around on the couch.

"Yeah?" He replied tiredly.

"How long do you think this is gonna last?"

"How long what's gonna last?"

"Well…you know. _THIS._" And to emphasize his point Sirius sat up and spread his arms.

Remus sighed. He _did_ know what Sirius was talking about, and unfortunately he had no answer to that question.

"I don't know, Si," He answered apologetically.

"Maybe we should do something about it," Peter suggested, giving up on homework. The unnatural silence of the entire Common Room made even doing work difficult, which was ironic considering how the upper year students were always screaming for silence in there so they could crunch notes in peace.

"That's actually a pretty good idea, Pete," Remus put his book away, unable to concentrate. His own world had enough drama as it was.

"For once I actually agree," Sirius looked uncharacteristically serious for a person supporting a "cheer-up" idea.

"The problem is, do we include him?" Sirius jerked a thumb in the general direction of the seventh year boys' dormitories, indicating James.

Remus stayed silent. While James never showed any inclination to break down at any point in public, the sheer effort he had to put in changed him; no laughter, no jokes, no…anything, really, that made him James Potter. It was evident the school missed the flamboyant Head Boy, as made obvious by the sour mood over the castle these couple of weeks, James' absence in everything but physically reminding everyone of the biggest and most daring raid Voldemort had made to date.

It may be do the Head Boy good to participate in a prank to help him get over it, and who knows? If James recovered maybe the school would too. It would be a…civic duty, of sorts, to play a prank with James now.

"I think we should." Remus said softly, after much thought.

"Brilliant," Sirius beamed. It seemed to be his first genuine smile in weeks. "Pete? Go get him."

"What? Why me?" Peter protested, alarmed he had to 'go get' his currently distraught hero.

"Because, if you don't, tomorrow night I'll-" Sirius began with a menacing look on his face, before he was cut off by a distinctively Lily Evans-like voice.

"_What_ are you planning to do tomorrow night, Sirius?"

Lily, Alice and Kelly approached the three boys. Despite the strict voice Lily actually looked very kind at the moment.

"Uh…nothing?" Sirius tried an innocent tone, which never worked anymore, but he was, at present, completely out of ideas. Remus looked panicked.

"Well, if it's a prank you're thinking of, Black," Lily gave the three boys a funny look at this point. "Then you'd better drop it."

"It's no prank tomorrow night, I can assure you of that Lils," Sirius replied.

"Very well. If you _were_ thinking of a prank and have been blatantly lying to me all this while, then can I at least suggest you include James?"

"Sure thing Lil-wait. WHAT?!" That last question was blurted out by the other five in unison, astounded as they were.

"_You_ people didn't hear anything from me, but I think James really needs something to cheer him up, no? I really would turn you in to the teachers if I happened to chance upon your prank of course, but I-oops!" At that Lily very dramatically and obviously dropped a scrap of parchment on to the floor.

"I really need a bath now. Coming, girls?" Lily nonchalantly asked, and stalked off to the girls' dormitories. Kelly and Alice gave the Marauders a significant look and followed.

Sirius, still trying to process what had just passed, glanced at the other two. Peter had his mouth hanging open and Remus was, as always, only mildly surprised, and picked up the scrap of paper.

Remus laughed as he scanned the parchment.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"She left us her schedule."

"What? She's not expecting us to ask her out-"

"No you idiot, it's her prefect patrolling schedule. And, surprise, surprise, she's not on duty tomorrow."

Sirius began to catch on.

"And-and-and she knows she's the only prefect that knows of our invisibility cloak and therefore the only one with any hope of catching us! OH MY GOD that girl is a genius."

Remus laughed. "Pete, seriously, go get James. Tell him Lily gave her tacit approval and he'll be down here in two seconds."

"Uh..okay."

"So, Padfoot, what do you have in mind?" Remus asked, evil-schemer grin already in place.

"I was thinking- Pete what the hell are you still doing standing there?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Well-I-What's tacit mean?"

Sirius and Remus sighed.

* * *

"What was that all about?" Kelly asked as she plopped onto her bed, cheeky grin, as always, in place.

"What was what all about?" Lily replied.

"Oh drop the act Lily, we know what you gave the boys." Kelly continued.

"Well, then you should know I was just trying to cheer up James and everyone else up! Hopefully that idiotic foursome would catch on quickly enough and plan a prank that's just funny for everyone and not some Snape-bullying prank again."

"Relax Lily," Alice soothed. "They aren't twelve anymore, they would want to help everyone."

"I hope so," Lily sighed.

"I know what else you hope for," Kelly giggled. Alice apparently was in on the joke as well, as she smiled.

"Wha-what?" Completely bewildered Lily could only stutter.

"Awww, c'mon Lils, you're smart, you should know what we're talking about!" Alice was giggling as well, which was very weird in Lily's experience, because Alice _never_ giggled.

"Well, I don't!" Lily was beginning to turn red, which never was a good sign.

"Really? Not even about anything to with…James?" Kelly teased, and giggled some more, which was no surprise because Kelly was a very giggly girl if there was one.

"What about James?" Lily turned even redder, but it had nothing to do with her temper this time, and other two girls knew they had got her.

"You really want us to spell it out?" Alice asked, laughing.

"I-he-you idiots-arghhhhh!" Lily buried her face in her pillow, knowing full well what her friends suspected, and really being unable to tell herself it was untrue.

* * *

"Hey dude. How are you doing?" Sirius asked, as James very obviously reluctantly walked down the stairs towards his friends, Peter tagging along behind.

"Not too bad. I was just reading a book when Peter dragged me downstairs-"

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA. READING?! A BOOK?! Dude, this has to stop. Really." Sirius' outraged expression finally managed to squeeze a smile out of James.

"C'mon James, its time to let it go." Remus began, directly addressing James' parents' deaths for the first time, which sobered everyone up immediately.

"I don't have to let go or anything, ok guys? We've been through this, I'm perfectly fine-"

"Shut up you idiot. You know you're not." That did shut James up.

"James, there's no need to tell us anything, cos' we'll know when you're fine and you're not. And we're not asking you to forget your parents completely either," Remus hastily continued, seeing James was about to say something extremely harsh.

"Yeah man. Just…get over it. Remember them, the good and the bad, but you have to get over it man." Sirius added in.

James sat in silence for what had to be voted as the longest moment in the century, and then sat some more. Finally he sighed.

"You know what, guys? You're right. I'm sorry for being an arse and everything."

"We're always right," Sirius grinned, relieved his friend had finally come around.

"It's not going to happen immediately though, you know, the old me isn't jus going to come back." James warned.

"Not to worry old buddy, we've got just the thing to cheer you up." Cue evil grins on four faces.

* * *

Up in her office, Professor McGonagall had a case of the shivers.

* * *

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, as if the world knew something had changed overnight, and was glad.

Also glad, were the Marauders, who were positively gleeful, bewildering everyone else in the Great Hall. Surely…they wouldn't…not now…

BOOM.

"BLACK, LUPIN, PETTIGREW, POTTER! DETENTION!"

* * *

That day, the 16th of November, 1978, became known as the day Hogwarts turned green, as a gigantic explosion in the Great Hall at breakfast turned everyone and everything on the grounds a disgusting GREEN.

* * *

"Oh boy did you see Snape green?!" A very green Sirius, wearing green robes, sat down on a green chair in the entirely green office of Professor McGonagall, and laughed.

"Not much different from his usual self, I'd say." A similarly afflicted and dressed James joined in the laughter, and took another green seat.

"How's Moony doing right now you think?" Peter piped up, so green even his voice _sounded_ green. Remus had been exempted from the detention by Professor McGonagall, which had all three present seriously thinking of lycanthropy as a way to escape detention.

"Chill, Wormy. The moon won't be up for hours and we'll be there way before then."

"Good to have you thinking again," Sirius ribbed.

James laughed.

"It's good to have you back, you know?"

The Professor walked into her office, looking murderous, as green as can be.

"It's good to be back," James whispered under his breath, as they smiled innocently up at the professor.

* * *

"Hey," Lily smiled as she strolled down into the Gryffindor Common Room, seemingly especially radiant in the after effects of the Marauder's breakfast prank wearing off, although she hadn't been really affected as her red hair had remained stubbornly red, much to the joy of the Marauders, of course.

"Hey," James replied, half grinning as he usually was, as he hadn't been in the past couple of weeks.

"How're you feeling?" Lily asked, even though it was plain to see: James Potter was back.

"Not too bad, Lils, but it's gotten better since you've gotten down here," He joked, currently in an expansive mood and eager to make the most of it.

Lily laughed, and said, "Well that's good, since you're going to be stuck with me for at least the next hour or so."

This was their first joint patrol since the opening of the term, as James had been excused by Professor McGonagall of his Head duties temporarily ever since his parent's…well let's not go there.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go. Thanks for letting us switch to the earliest patrolling slot, by the way," James stood. Lily noticed he towered almost a full head over her, as she had since their fifth year and he had his ridiculous growth spurt, but strangely did not resent it this time.

"It's fine," Lily said as she made for the portrait hole.

"Just don't tell me what you need to be free for later on tonight, cos' I really do NOT want to know," She continued, giving a fake shudder. James laughed.

"Even if you asked I wouldn't tell, Lily dear,"

"I'm NOT 'Lily dear'," Lily shuddered again, this time for real, annoyed. "Why you idiots can't just call me Lily, like Alice does, I don't understand,"

"One of the great mysteries of life Lils," James winked at her, emphasizing her nickname, to which she rolled her eyes.

"How's Sirius and Peter doing in detention? I bet they weren't too happy you got off early to patrol early."

"No they weren't," James replied, but did not seem inclined to continue. (Because Sirius had complained about how 'HEAD BOYS GOT TO GO ON SNOGGING SESSIONS AT NIGHT WITH THEIR DREAM GIRLS AND WE GET STUCK HERE CLEANING-' and he really did not know how to make that sound less embarrassing to himself.)

At this point their conversation took a pause, as a figure approached them from the other end of a corridor. It came nearer in the dim light of the torches, until---

"Snape?" James tone was surprised and condescending.

"Snape?" Lily was just surprised.

"Potter. Evans," The offending Slytherin sneered in reply.

"What are you doing here?" James demanded. "It's after-hours!"

"The same might be asked of the two of you, no? We are, after all, in the vicinity of the Astronomy Tower and you _are_ two people of the opposite gender…"

The insinuations seemed to infuriate Lily, who replied with seething vehemence.

"You know very well we're patrolling as part of our duties as Head Boy and Girl. YOU, on the other hand, might very well be handed a detention and deduction of house points unless you give me a perfectly good reason to explain your being out of bound after hours."

James was duly impressed, but then he had an extremely biased opinion. Snape, on the other hand, was not as intimidated as James thought he should be.

"What I do is none of any of your business, and if you think house points and detentions are going to deter me," Snape's voice had come down to a whisper by this point. "Then you are _sorely_ mistaken, no?"

The menace in his voice was unmistakable, the allusion to the events of th world outside enough to make James step in.

"I know I'm not, Sniv-Snape." James caught himself in time. Somehow, the nickname they planted upon Snape in their younger, more innocent years seemed childish now. "Detention, for being out of your Common Room after hours, and let's see, twenty points from Slytherin for cheek towards the Heads sound good, no? Now get going to the Slytherin Common Room."

Snape sneered again, but did not deign to reply. He stumped off the way he came from.

"Oi! The Slytherin Common Room's this way! HEY!" James was all ready to charge off after the greasy bugger and drag him back to the Common Room, but Lily held him back.

"It's okay, James, JAMES!"

"But he just totally gave us an attitude!"

"Yes, but if we spot him along another corridor we get to deduct points again, yes?" Lily said, trying the one argument she knew would work. It did.

"Well we-wait. Huh. I've never thought about it that way before."

"You've never _thought_ before, James Potter, so don't strain yourself," Lily said in mock kindness, laughing, green eyes flashing.

James laughed as well, and reflected on this amazing girl next to him, and thought Sirius might very well be right this one time on his Dream Girl.

"So why were you so cold to ol' Snivelly anyway?" James inquired curiously later on. "I always thought you were kind of buddy-buddy with him."

"Well, I just…fell out with him," Lily replied cautiously.

"Why?"

"He…changed." Lily said haltingly, unsure.

"Really? I thought he was, and always will be, a greasy, scheming, bugger up to his neck in the Dark-"

Lily laughed. There really was no stopping James Potter when he got started on something he really felt about, like Quidditch, Severus Snape, and maybe, just maybe, Lily Evans as well.

"He has changed, James. Maybe not in obvious ways, but he has. You've noticed it as well, I know."

"Me? Really?"

"Yeah, you did, and you do. You called him Snape instead of Snivellus earlier didn't you?"

"Huh. I did. Well, whadd'ya know, James Potter can be sensitive too huh? Huh?" James laughed in self mocking, nudging Lily.

"Yeah, even if it's sub-conciously, I'm really proud of you," Lily teased.

"Hey! I resent that." James said indignantly, then turned serious. "But to be honest, Lily, I think it's good for you."

"Really?" Lily raised an eyebrow, slightly confused.

"Yeah. I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think he's good for you." James said earnestly.

"Hmm…" Lily caged for time, reminiscing on that day in fifth year by the lake, where…things, happened.

"-it's practically like aid and comfort to the enemy, you know, and-Lils? Lils?" He finally noticed his companion was not listening to him at all.

"People change, James."

"But he changed for the worse!"

"Yeah, but he might change for the better later on, right?"

James snorted in derision. "Yeah. Snape. Changing. For the better. He's a hopeless case if I ever saw one, Lils,"

"I used to think you were hopeless too, remember?" Lily gave a kind smile. "You changed too."

James had no reply to that. At all. So he did the only thing that came to mind at the moment: he stuck his tongue out at her.

* * *

**A/N: Hello! Hope you've been enjoying yourself so far in the story (I know I haven't, writer's block is a terrible affliction). Read and review please, as usual. If I keep getting these paltry numbers of reviews per chapter (average is 3 for now) I'm just gonna stop writing altogether so please. Update schedules are now mostly every weekend!**

**Next chapter: The first full moon of the school year!**

**Thanks to all reviewers! (Next chapter I'll post individual responses.)**


	6. Shacking It Up

**Chapter 5: Shacking It Up

* * *

**

"Take it from me, Lily, you do NOT want to try cockroach clusters, no matter what Dumbledore says," James asserted, as they neared Gryffindor Tower towards the end of their patrol.

"I wasn't going to anyway," Lily rolled her eyes. "They're made out of _cockroaches_!"

"And yet she _wonders_ what they taste like," James replied sardonically.

"Well I do! Don't you? I mean, surely you would be at least a little curious!"

"I'm sad to announce to you that as a matter of fact, I don't, Lils,"

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"I hate you."

James laughed, and held the portrait hole open for her. Lily crawled through without a word at his chivalry/arrogance, surprising them both, and stood at the other end, peering through at him.

"You're not coming in, are you." Lily said. It wasn't a question. James looked almost sheepish as he replied.

"No," He winked. "Have some…stuff to do."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You're not going to tell me what you have to do either, are you?"

"No."

"I still hate you."

"Okey dokey, Lily." James grinned. "Hey that rhymed!"

Lily rolled her eyes. She was getting to be worried the extensive amount of time she now spent around James would cause her eyes to be permanently glued upwards.

"Fine, then go, and Merlin help you if Filch catches you and chains you up and uses his thumbscrews on you."

"Aww Lils, good night to you too!" James laughed as he turned to leave. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye," Lily said to his retreating figure.

"And James?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful, okay?"

James' reaction was unreadable in the dim light.

"Okay."

* * *

A huge, shaggy, black dog, looking uncannily like the Grim, glared at James from the entrance of the Shack as James scrambled in from under the Whomping Willow.

James knew that glare well. It meant 'Damn you stupid Pig-Head-Boy, deserting your friends to go chat up your girl!'

Ignoring the dog, James concentrated on the image of a stag in his mind, and when he next opened his eyes he was on all fours, furry and antlered. His enhanced hearing also picked up the scrambling of what was most likely a white rat scuttling around the wooden floor.

And the smell hit him. _Predator!_ It said. It also said 'RUN YOU BLOODY MORON OF A STAG!'

The stag did not move. James took a couple of deep breaths and the stag was entirely in his control. He glared a 'shut the hell up' glare at the dog.

The dog ignored him and bounded downstairs, where the terrifying smell was coming from.

Ah well. Sirius was never too sensitive to other people anyway.

James followed him, hooves clip-clopping on the wooden stairs as he went, but before he reached the ground floor he was bowled over by something huger, furrier, but distinctively antler-less.

Moony gave as friendly a growl as he could give, and all four animals in the Shrieking Shack gave animalistic grins as best they could in the circumstances.

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs ride again.

The werewolf smelled, however faintly, hundreds of sleeping prey in the big black castle right next to the forest it was now in, and tried to go towards it, but before were taken in that direction it felt two antlers goring into its chest, pushing it back.

He howled, frustrated. He liked his three pack mates, but sometimes he wondered if he wouldn't be better off just killing the three of them and be done with it, then helped himself to the feast up in the castle.

The rat would be next to useless in a fight.

The dog and stag together would a pose a couple of problems, but the stag was late today and the dog alone would probably be no match for a fully grown were wolf like himself.

He tried his luck again, this time feinting to the left before bolting off to the right, but to no avail as the dog tackled him to the ground.

He howled.

* * *

The rising sun was just visible behind the mountains deep in the grounds when the four Marauders limped back reluctantly into the Shack, Remus' werewolf fur already beginning to shed.

The other three rushed back quickly into the tunnel and back towards Hogwarts. This being their first full moon of the year they had cut it close with the time, frolicking around the forest until it was absolutely essential to get back to the Shack.

All three collapsed into bed and were probably asleep before their heads hit the pillows.

It was three in the afternoon, and none of the Marauders have yet emerged from their dormitories, and the girls were getting worried in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"What if they died?" Alice asked, only half jokingly. No one could sleep that long.

"Don't get Lily's hopes up Al," Kelly giggled, as high as always.

Lily perked an eyebrow up. "I don't want them dead."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well then that's just cos' you're in lo-" At this point Lily had cupped her hand over Kelly's mouth, much to Kelly's dismay.

"Complete that sentence and regret it for the rest of your life, Thompson."

"Mm-hmm-hmm-mm-mm."

Lily took that as acquiescence on Kelly's part, and released her hold over her friend's powers of speech, and regretted in immediately.

"As I was saying before you cut me off, that's just cos'-" Lily launched herself across the low table she was sitting at towards the couch Kelly was on.

Both girls gave off a variety of squeals and giggles as they wrestled as only girls can, attracting the attention of half the Common Room.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Sirius Black emerged from nowhere, unable to wipe a gleeful smirk off his face.

"I don't know, Si," James walked up next to his friend, also with an evil grin on his face. "I'd say it looks like a girl on girl cat fight."

Sirius took the seat recently vacated by Lily, eyes glued all the time upon the two now lying-on-top-of-each-other girls.

"Please, do not let my presence affect you ladies. Go ahead with…whatever." Sirius was giving a very good impression of the Cheshire cat at this point in time.

Lily's eyes narrowed, but Kelly (now under Lily, if anyone cares to know) responded to the boy's incessant staring with a playful smirk.

"I haven't come out of the closet yet! Please stop staring!" She implored.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone." Sirius replied.

"But-but-but it's so embarrassing!" Ironically, Kelly had just announced that to the entire Common Room, most of whom were laughing already.

Lily sighed. Between Sirius, Kelly, and James, she would be lucky if she managed to have a single day of her last school year in which she would be able to look back upon and not want to kill herself.

Both girls sat up, brushing themselves off, causing James, Sirius and Peter, who had just came down from the dormitory, to sigh very audibly in disappointment.

"Oh please, like you three don't see enough of this up in your dorms with your magazines and posters." Lily rolled her eyes again.

The boys looked at each other, grinned, and shrugged.

Lily sighed again.

"What are you boys doing up so bright and early anyway?" Alice asked.

"Well, you know what they say."

"What?"

"The..the…early hippogriff catches the flobberworm?" Sirius gambled.

"Hippogriffs don't even eat flobberworms, Sirius."

"That's not the point."

"No I guess it isn't."

James gave up on the intellectually non-stimulating conversation.

"I have to get down to the pitch already." He said.

"What for?" Kelly asked.

"Quidditch trials. Which, seeing as you are Gryffindor Seeker, you ought to know about."

"Really. I really have to check the notice board more often."

"You should, Kel. We'll go down with you," Lily suggested. "We have nothing to do anyway, right girls?"

"Says you…" Alice replied, but stood up to follow James down to the Quidditch pitch.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry, biggest writer's block in the history of mankind decided to inflict its presence on me, hence the late update and the short chapter. I really really had an idea of where to go with this, but just…didn't flow. Next chapter will be better!**

**To:**

**Amaramichelle: I feel sorry for your nan too. Hope you like this!**

**ElloraJayne: Sorry about the poor spelling, I have no beta (ANY VOLUNTEERS HINTHINT) so I have to proofread everything myself, which I only do after I post a chapter up. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

**Joelle8: Thanks for the review, and hope you're liking this up till now!**

**sarlovesoccer: I'll try to include to Peeves as soon as a brainwave hits me. Enjoy!**

**NAO: Names are the essence of identity, haha. Thanks, and enjoy!**

**Rider Arya Svit-kona: Again, thanks! You rock my world every other chapter it's almost like having a fan ;)**

**MissaRissa: Hope you aren't disappointed by this chapter, cos' I am, but I'll get better, I promise!**


	7. Take Two

**Before I Begin: I think I really need a beta because proofreading everything myself right after completing a chapter is obviously not working; my grammatical and spelling errors are piling up. Anyone interested? Drop me your email in your review, or email me! (Reviewing is obviously preferred hahah) AND IM NOT JK ROWLING I DONT OWN THIS STUFF EXCEPT FOR THE PARTS I MADE UP.  


* * *

**

**Chapter 6: Gryffindor For The Cup, Take Two  
**

The chilly September wind swept across the greener then green Quidditch pitch, hitting Lily full in the face. She squinted to keep her eyes from drying out, but quickly re-opened them to their full emerald glory to keep them trained on a figure sitting on a stationary broomstick a full 50 metres up in the air above her.

And she could _still_ hear him yelling.

"-get the hell out of here, it's the GRYFFINDOR trials not Ravenclaw and STOP GIGGLING YOU NUTCASES-"

James was very loud when he wanted to be, which was a good thing, Lily reflected, when considering he _was_ Head Boy and Quidditch Captain, and Sonorus Charms aren't exactly his strong suit.

Lily shook herself. She really should stop ogling and daydreaming about her once sworn enemy. It's unbecoming of the Head Girl.

_Then again, he was Head Boy. Maybe I'm just obsessed about work, no?_ She groaned inwardly. She was admitting to being work-obsessed just to keep her mind from wandering to James Potter now?

James' Quidditch robes fit him_ very_ well. _Arghhhhhhh!_

Next to Lily, currently preoccupied with her own thoughts (they all had a very good idea of whom she was thinking about), the others were quickly getting bored.

"Is that James hollering?" Alice asked, peering about the skies above the pitch, looking for the source of a slightly muffled, distorted voice.

"No." Sirius replied.

"When James hollers we would be able to hear every word he says no matter how high he is," He continued in response the girls' questioning looks. Kelly giggled.

They watched in silence as James demonstrated what the aspiring Chasers were supposed to do; weaving through two dozen bright purple rings scattered in mid air that turned green when he got though them, he landed beside the queue of Gryffindors clutching broomsticks.

"What's my timing?" He asked a boy holding a stopwatch as he landed.

"27 seconds." The boy replied in a slightly awed voice.

James grinned and flicked his wand. All the rings turned purple again.

"The basic rule is simple enough; pass through all rings in the shortest amount of time possible. The route you take is up to you. Any questions?"

He gave another flick of his wand, and the rings rearranged themselves in another random formation.

"First up,-yeah?" James paused to point out a tiny third year with his hand in the air.

"What's the timing to pass to get into the team?"

"There's no set timing; the person with the shortest time gets the highest chance. I should warn all of you, though, that everyone on the team currently averages at a minute." He added, as an afterthought.

"A minute? But you just did half a minute!" The boy exclaimed.

"Yeah…well, I did," James replied and allowed a grin to grace his otherwise permanently-stern-Captain face. Picturing Lily rolling her eyes at him made him grin reluctantly again, even if he knew she probably didn't bother up in the stands.

* * *

The real Lily in the stands, meanwhile, heard every word, and rolled his eyes at him, even if he couldn't see.

"First up…Benjy Fenwick!"

"Ok, I'm officially bored." Alice announced.

"Officially?" Peter asked, mystified that anyone needed to 'officiallise' boredom.

Sirius stared at his friend, but decided against trying to explain. Peter was a lost cause if he ever saw one.

"Hey guys."

Five heads turned from the pitch to the stands beside them, where Remus Lupin was now walking towards them, looking slightly haggard.

"Hey Remus," They chorused.

"How's your illness?" Alice asked.

"Not too bad this time actually."

"Yeah, you used to look like hell whenever you were sick back in our first couple of years." Kelly said.

"Nowadays when whatever sickness you have acts up you recover really quickly," Alice continued. The girls had come to a conclusion that Remus had some long running magical disease that left him weak very so often but was not contagious. None of the Marauders have ever bothered or wanted to correct that misconception, especially not about the contagious part.

"Maybe you're growing out of it!" Kelly said, trying to cheer Remus up, who was at this point looking distinctively uncomfortable.

"Yeah…Maybe." Remus tried a smile on a size and found it fit. Sometimes he wondered if all the people he knew and thought they knew him would still be so friendly after they found out he was a werewolf.

The Marauders accepted him, but what are the odds it would happen again? It was one of his recurring nightmares; no more Hogwarts, no more 'Hey Remus' or 'Hey Lupin' when people pass him by, no more going out of his parent's cellar ever again.

It was because of this fear that made Remus vow to himself everyday, every morning, every minute of his life, to never reveal his werewolf identity to anyone other than the Marauders and his parents.

* * *

Sirius, Peter, Alice and Kelly were bored again. Remus, after joining them, had sunk into one of his 'moods', as James called it, where he basically tuned everyone out.

"You know what?" Sirius began, after a moment of pensive silences enforced by Lily and Remus subconsciously.

"What?" Alice was the only one to reply. Peter was too entranced with watching James fly, disturbingly even more so than Lily, and Kelly was yelling 'JAMES POTTER YOU DIRTBAG SHOWOFF' or some such insult every other minute or so.

"I'm hungry."

"Good to know, Sirius," Alice said kindly. She was probably the only person in Hogwarts sweet enough to actually mean it.

Sirius caught on.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm really, really hungry."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Extremely. Hovering around starvation level." Sirius put on his puppy dog eyes when he said that, which was pretty persuasive since he was technically a dog.

"Hm. You know, this _is_ pretty boring, watching James yell at little boys."

"Yeah. I mean, we can watch anytime in between classes and such when, they're blocking his view of Lily, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Yeah. So, wanna go to the kitchens with me?" Sirius finally revealed his intention.

"I guess." And with that Alice gracefully picked herself up from the ground.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked the still prone Sirius.

"Uh…nothing? You're just going to…go? To the kitchens? With me?"

"That's what you asked of me right?"

"Yeah, but usually I have to whine and beg and plead before anyone agrees."

"That's cos' you always ask Remus, Peter or James and you irritate them when you do that."

"Good point. What about you?"

"Me? I'm hungry."

And she set off down the stands towards the castle. Sirius followed, looking exactly like the bewildered doggy he was right now.

Up in the air, James Potter, Chaser extraordinaire, was getting increasingly frustrated. Not even he, with all his brilliantness and thick-skin and such, could reduce the undeniable pathetic-ness of his potential fellow Chasers.

There was Edgar Bones, who was quite evidently not as good at Quidditch as he was at Herbology.

There was Benjy Fenwick, who could shoot for England but rides for the Teletubbies. (The Teletubbies fascinated Sirius.)

Then there was Emmeline Vance, looking and acting cool if you please, but shrieked like a banshee when James passed the Quaffle at her, missed her grab completely but managed to smash the crimson ball into her neighbour's face.

And last, but much to James' chagrin, not least, was little Ally Dearborn, who could fly like a dragon hopped up on Ghanaian janjaweed but dropped the Quaffle sixteen times in the past hour.

Not even Peter could manage that many drops.

And these four were the best shortlisted; James preferred not to relive the memories of when the rest tried out.

Gryffindor was in deep, deep shit in the Quidditch Cup this year.

* * *

Before very long, Alice and Sirius had reached the entrance to the kitchens, joking and laughing along the way. Alice tickled the pear with a finger and promptly stepped into the kitchen like a ballerina.

Somehow, the effect was far from hilarious for Sirius, who would have burst his seams if anyone had tried that demeanor around him, but he noticed she did everything the same way: gracefully, softly.

It's like she was born with it. Then again, she was born into a pureblooded family of the highest class around, nearly on par with the Blacks.

Except the Prewetts were a much nicer family. Or, the Blacks were a much less palatable preposition altogether.

"Aren't you coming in? I thought you were hungry," Alice said. Sirius noticed her voice was slightly singsong, melodious, beautiful.

"Uh..Yeah. I am. I'm coming in."

Alice laughed, a soft tinkling sound. "You don't have to report that to me,"

Sirius was slightly abashed and kept quiet, allowing the house elves to squeal and trip over themselves offering him everything from wasabi chips to chocolate-fondue-in-a-can.

"I'll take the New York cheesecake and the usual drink please," Sirius grinned. The Hogwarts house elves were great; nothing like old Kreacher mumbling under his breath back home.

"And for you, miss?" The house elf, named Tippy, asked as he bowed yet again.

"Stop bowing, Tippy. I think I'll have as much chocolate as I can eat," At this point she was tempted to let out a giggle, but refrained herself, and continued. "And Sirius' drink, whatever it is."

"Oh, you'll find out in a moment." Sirius said in reply to her unspoken question, looking gleeful.

Alice frowned. That look on Sirius' face was never a good sign. Then again, she figured she was safe; whatever she was drinking, he was too, and surely he wouldn't torture himself just to annoy her, right?

Right.

Alice forgot to consider that what was torture might be a sweet, tasty treat for Sirius Black.

* * *

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" James' whistle sounded for the umpteenth time as Arnold Peasegood frantically tried help the profusely bleeding, and probably concussed, Billy Stone, whose head he had just crashed his bat into.

"Damnit, Vance, bring Stone up to the Hospital Wing, and get back up here pronto. Peasegood, you're out."

"What?! Why?!"

"Couple of reasons, foremost being that you almost killed your potential teammate with you bat."

"I-I-I could do that to a couple of Slytherin players as well!"

"That's true, you could, but you spend a lot more time with the bat around your teammates in practice and I don't want to up the team's risk factor, yes?"

"Awww, c'mon James, I-"

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! OUT!"

Arnold sighed and gave up, landing with slumped shoulders and stumping off the pitch.

* * *

"SYRUP?! YOUR USUAL DRINK IS SYRUP?!" Alice yelled at Sirius, currently rolling on the floor in laughter, gasping for breath.

She calmed her self down.

"Sirius, I can't drink syrup." She said, making a face of disgust at the word syrup.

"Why not? I do it perfectly well, all the time." And he picked up the jug of syrup, after he stopped laughing like a maniac, and proceeded to gulp half of it down. Straight from the jug.

Alice wondered how she was friends with such a pig.

"Try it, its good," Sirius grinned, wiping syrup off his face with his sleeve.

"No!"

"Why not?"

'Its syrup!"

"My point exactly."

"Arghhhh!"

"That a yes?"

"No!"

"Awww, c'mon, if you reject a drink the house elves give you, they get upset, and they'll screw up their cooking, their cleaning and whatnot, and the castle will fall into decay, and the school will close down! All because you refused a drink from them!"

"Its syrup. Syrup is not a drink- wait. You're saying that unless I drink this syrup, the house elves would be upset?"

"Yeah. They're pretty sensitive when it comes to food and drink they prepare. If anything you ask for is later on rejected they blame themselves for their sub par cooking."

"But it's not their fault."

"Not in this case, no, it isn't." Sirius was grinning widely again by now.

Alice sighed. As if to emphasise Sirius' point, Tippy came up to them every 3 seconds or so to ask if the drinks or not up to standard.

Sirius knew he'd got her: Alice could never bear to hurt the house elves by rejecting a drink.

Alice picked up the jug, peering into its sugary saccharine depths. Closing her eyes, she told herself to just grit her teeth and get it over with…

* * *

James sat down. Overall, the team he had assembled in front of him wasn't as bad as he had feared up in the air; on the other hand, it certainly wasn't as good as he dreamed, imagined, or hoped that it would be.

He stared down the players one by one. He started with the position he felt was the worst off.

To replace Alice's brothers, Gideon and Fabian, both of whom had graduated last year with a record of career 4610 points scored as chasers with James in the five years they had played together (that's 4610 points between them), terrorizing opposing keepers, was Emmeline Vance and Benjy Fenwick.

Emmeline could do everything quite well, just needed to get over her fear of incoming balls. Bludger training beckoned.

Benjy…well, pace on a broomstick was difficult to get up to speed quickly, but James was never one to say no to a challenge, having already formulated the vague plans of sadistic sprint routines for Benjy, and if all else fails, James could just dump him in front of opposing goalposts every game and watch the points rack up.

The beaters, he figured, could do with more heft, but they'll do until he beefed them up.

Shelley Cooper looked every bit your typical stick thin girl- until a bat went until her hand and she was hitting moving targets from across the stadium, even if the Bludgers she hit were most probably not even going to bruise opponents much.

Joey Jenkins was the largest fifth year James had ever set eyes upon, with decent aim. Given the correct technique and time, Joey could possibly be a future England beater, with his natural strength.

The Keeper was going to remain as the now sixth year Merwyn Finwick, ever so dependable. James hadn't even required him to try out again; he was another potential professional player, and none of the young upstarts trying out came even close to his ability.

Kelly Thompson was also, without a doubt, going to remain on the team as Seeker. She hadn't even bothered to change into her Quidditch robes, with her record timing on the purple hoop weaving test a ridiculous 25 seconds, faster even than James. The closest anyone came to beating that timing today was a third year who recorded a commendable 32 seconds then missed the snitch three times in a row.

"Okay team. This year, as many of you know, would be my, and Kelly's, last chance to win the Quidditch Cup." The fact that he and Kelly had already won the Cup for the past three years running was conveniently glossed over.

"And you know what? We're going to win it. This year's gonna be Gryffindor's year, (the again was left unsaid) the names engraved on the Cup come next May is going to be ours, and the initials carved into the archives for the year 1978-79 is going to be ours."

"I know, looking at last year's all conquering team, we aren't as strong, but give me four evenings a week and I swear we can dominate the Cup in ways you have never seen before."

"Trainings are Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Be here at the pitch by 5 pm, unless you like being skinned alive and roasted over a Fiendfyre pit by me."

"Team dismissed."

* * *

"FOUR trainings a week, Lils, four!" Kelly whined back in the common room. "I swear your boyfri-"

"MHFFMFFHM."

"You'll stop insinuating things between me and James?"

"Mhfm."

"You sure?"

"Mhfm."

"If you do it again I'll hex you."

"MHFMHFM."

"Ok then." Cue deep breath.

"Merlin, Lils, I almost suffocated!"

"Breathe through your nose."

"I can't."

"Why the hell not?!"

"I have small nostrils."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, _James_ wants us to train four times a week!"

"Yeah, so?"

"So he's insane! Four times a week! We don't even have four Transfiguration lessons in a week!"

"Why don't you ask him about it."

"I know exactly why he's making us train so many times a week, Lils."

"Really? Why?"

"Cos' he thinks he can make this team into something remotely resembling last year's! He implied so himself! He's nuts!"

"Really? Wow. Calm down for a second Kelly. How could any team match last year's Gryffindor squad? With him and Alice's brothers scoring goals for fun you could sit with us in the stands and we'd still win."

"Exactly! He's nuts!"

Lily chuckled.

"Putting aside our insane captain then, where are Sirius and Alice?" Remus joined in the conversation.

"I have no ide-" Lily began to reply, but was cut off by a most unearthly sound.

"-ARE MY SUNSHINEEEEEEE, YOU ARE-"

It sounded like-no-wait-could it be?!

"YOU MAKE ME HAPPY, WHEN I AM SAD," Alice stumbled through the portrait, not missing a beat of the song she was singing terribly off key. Her face was smeared with what looked like glaze. She looked, and acted, drunk.

Sirius came in after her, cupping his ears with his hands.

"Make her stop! Please! I beg you! I know my mistake now!" He was begging Lily and Kelly, who had only ever seen their friend in this state a few times in their lives before, although on the previous occasions they had always been able to keep her within the dormitory.

She wasn't drunk, of course. Alice holds her drink like a fish. No, no, no. She was on a_ sugar high_.

"SIRIUS BLACK WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Lily thundered, as Kelly tried to wrestle Alice down and shut her up at the same time.

"Nothing! Just-mildly, mind you, forced half a jug of syrup into her. Then she started singing! I couldn't stop her without removing my hands from my ears and using my wand!"

The entire Gryffindor Common Room had their fingers stuffed in their ears now, and were giggling and laughing.

"SIRIUS! WHAT WAS THAT FOR! SHE CAN'T HOLD HER SUGAR!"

"WELL I KNOW THAT _NOW_ DON"T I?!"

"SOMEONE STOP HER SINGING FOR MERLIN"S SAKES," Remus bellowed, cutting into the yelled conversation.

"STUPEFY!"

Silence reigned.

Eyes followed the path of the spell, reaching James standing at the top of the staircases leading to the dormitories, his wand still pointed at the unconscious Alice, smoking slightly.

"Astalavista baby," He deadpanned, then blew the smoke off the tip of his wand.

Remus groaned.

"I should never have allowed him to watch the Terminator."

* * *

**A/N: Wellwellwellhuhhuhhuh? How was that? I think this would be better than the last chapter, had a ball of a time writing this. Added a little Sirius/Alice, but don't worry I'm not doing the James friends pairing off with Lily's friends thing. I have a little something in mind. Last chapter was a bumper chapter in terms of reviews, which motivated me to come up with this and update early, right before I leave on holiday with friends! See what happens when you review huh? Might update this again, if Bintan Island has any wireless connection. Review and tell me what you think, huh?

* * *

**

**To:**

**B. Longbottom: Glad you liked it, and here is the 'soon' update you asked for! Enjoy!**

**FelicityGreyson: Thanks for the offer! Fantastic to hear that you liked my story, it's any author's wet dream, you know? Haha.**

***blink: Thanks for the review and the compliments, made my day, I tell you. Hope you like this chapter as well!**

**Rider Arya Svit-Kona: Hey I love you! Really!**

**Stine Weasley: Damn you I thought I got my first flame when I read the first couple of words of your review, haha. Hope you like this chapter too!**


	8. Hangover

**Disclaimer: To deluded readers: Read previous chapters for conclusive proof that I am not, despite rumours to the contrary, JK Rowling.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Hangover**

The next morning dawned dull and chilly, reflecting the mood in a particular Gryffindor dormitory.

Reflecting the mood of one particular girl called Alice Prewett, actually.

After last night's…transgressions, Alice was understandably mortified as of this point in time.

"Oh god, why didn't any of you stop me?" Alice questioned, her voice muffled as she buried her face into her pillow.

"We tried, Al, we really did," Kelly replied.

"It wasn't that bad," Lily added, in an attempt to make her friend feel better, which, not surprisingly did not work.

"Not that bad?! Lily, half of Gryffindor heard me sing 'You Are My FREAKING Sunshine' in the worst tone I could muster, and you know what my singing is like even when I use my good voice, and arghhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

At this point Alice had simply just screamed into her pillow, which did not really suffice to over the noise.

"You know, if you cover your ears, it almost sounds like she's singing," Kelly giggled.

Alice removed her face from the pillow for long enough to send a death glare at her friend.

"Not helping,"

"Sorry."

"I'm never gonna step of our dormitory."

"Aww Alice,"

"I mean it."

"Okay."

Companionable silence set in for a while.

"Lily?" Kelly began.

"Yeah?"

"There's an owl for you, tapping at the window."

Lily turned around, and sure enough, there was an owl. James' owl, to be exact.

"How'd you know it's for me?"

"It's James' owl. Who else could it be for?"

Lily blushed, but did not contest Kelly's assertion. Plucking the letter off Mercury, Lily plopped down on her own bed to read the James' letter in private.

Or so she hoped.

Alice and Kelly promptly shuffled over to her bed as well, peering over her shoulder.

"C'mon Lils, open it, open it!"

"Is it just me, or are the two of you more excited about the letter than I am?"

"It's true, we are more excited!" Kelly giggled again. Alice nodded in agreement.

Lily sighed.

"Excited or not, I'm going to read it alone first, ok?"

"Awwww."

The two girls shuffled back to Alice's bed, looking on expectantly as Lily unrolled the parchment.

"Well? Well? What's it say?"

Lily laughed. Sometimes she swore the two of them were like little girls needing attention from their mother all the time. Unfortunately, in this role-play she was the mother.

"Nothing, just about patrolling duties tonight."

"Awwww." Kelly, replied, disappointed.

"Wait a minute, here. If it's just about duties why can't he just tell you about it at breakfast?"

"Well I…he…umm…."

Kelly and Alice came to the same conclusion at the same time: Lily was lying to them about James' letter; and this had to be the worst form of blasphemy, withholding information about boys from girlfriends.

They pounced for the letter.

Lily screamed and ran.

* * *

"James, I need your conditioner!" Sirius yelled from the bathroom of their dormitory.

"Don't you have your own?" James yelled back, just as he threw Mercury out of the window.

"It ran out!"

"You just bought a 1 litre bottle two weeks ago! What'd you do with conditioner, drink it?"

"It just ran out!"

"Then make do without it 'cos I don't have conditioner, okay?"

"WHAT?! NO CONDITIONER?!" Sirius yelped like it was the most ludicrous thing he'd ever heard.

"Just take a damn shower with shampoo!"

"What about conditioner?! Remus? Pete? You guys got any?"

"No."

"Nope."

"My god, what the hell is wrong with you conditioner-phobic people?"

Sirius stepped out of the shower, steam billowing, looking thoroughly scandalized by the lack of conditioner.

"You know, we've been sharing that bathroom for seven years. You'd think you would notice none of your other room mates use conditioner." Remus commented.

"I never noticed that you lot were such Neanderthals, if that's what you mean," Sirius shot back.

"Well get your clothes on, Metro-Man, we've got to be at classes in 30 minutes and if I have to hear Peter moaning about a pathetic breakfast all through lessons again because of you I swear I will hex you, conditioner or no." James said, standing up from his bed.

"Well don't get all jealous just 'cos I take care of my hair," Sirius grinned as he pulled the school robes over himself.

"Sure Pad, we're jealous of you. Really." Remus rolled his eyes and led the way out to the common room.

"It's ok mate. Buy me some conditioner and I'll teach you."

* * *

Alice, Kelly and Lily, meanwhile, were all back on Alice's bed. Lily had somehow miniaturized the letter and keyed the reverse spell to a password which she obviously did not give the other two, so after two minutes of trying to read the tiny words (practically just lines on parchment now) and another two minutes of trying to guess the password, they gave up.

"You know Lils, it's bad karma to keep such important information from your girlfriends." Kelly said.

"Sure. I'll take the risk."

"Really?"

"Is it worth it just for James Potter?"

Lily could see where this line of reasoning was leading to, so she simply rolled her eyes again.

"I don't know why you like him so much now anyway."

"Who says I do?"

"I mean, you used to think he was obnoxious and arrogant, and that's putting it nicely," Kelly continued, completely ignoring Lily's protests.

"Yeah, and he's also best friends with Sirius Black, scum of the earth." Alice said this with such viciousness that Lily and Kelly actually moved about an inch away from her.

"I…well…" Lily did not know quite how to respond.

"I'm going to kill Sirius Black, I swear."

"Won't you have to step out of the dormitory for that?"

"Oh I have a plan in mind," Alice said airily, making her way out of the dormitory.

"Like?"

"Like if I succeed in mutilating Sirius Black in exactly the way I want to right now no one would ever laugh at me again."

Lily and Kelly raised their eyebrows.

"Problem solved. Let's go girls,"

* * *

And so it happened that just as the Marauders were stepping out of their dormitory, the girls also emerged in a similar fashion from theirs. The resulting scream of anger across the top floor of the Gryffindor Common Room, from the Seventh Year Girl's dorm to the Seventh Year Boy's, could be heard far below in the Great Hall.

"SIRIUS BLACK!"

Sirius, who had had some practice in facing this kind of situations, usually because some girl or other he had not been very nice to came looking for him, promptly backed into the dorm and locked the door.

Which did nothing to clam Alice's wrath, of course. Being the calm, elegant lady her reputation and upbringing demanded she made her slow way up the staircase leading to the boy's dormitories, and, sidestepping the stunned Marauders, who had never seen her angry before, blasted the door open.

The light flooding into the dormitory highlighted the unmistakable look of being cornered on Sirius' face. Remus hastily re-sealed the door behind Alice, said a quick prayer for his friend, and fled with the rest of the Marauders.

* * *

Breakfast was a subdued affair, with the Marauders fearing they had lost one of their own forever, and the girls worrying about their friend's inevitable eventual conviction of intended homicide.

"How do you think Sirius is now?" James finally asked, unable to avoid the subject any longer.

"Well, let me put it this way: I would be relieved if Sirius is still alive." Remus replied.

"Oh Merlin, she's gone and killed him," Kelly said. " Oh Merlin save us all, we're accomplices to murder!"

"What? How?" Lily asked.

"For starters, Remus here locked them in. He's gonna get Azkaban for sure." Kelly said with a sympathetic look at Remus.

"So the rest of us are home free?" Peter asked hopefully.

"I doubt it. We knew what was going to happen, and we made no move to stop it. That makes all of us guilty through inaction."

"Damn that Sirius Black, he's going to be the death of us all."

* * *

All in all, everyone was very surprised to see Sirius Black already in their Charms class, leaning his chair back without a care in the world, and, suspiciously, without a single scratch.

"Sirius?" James began cautiously.

"Hey guys! What took you so long?"

"Umm…nothing?"

"If you say so, Jamesie."

No one knew what to say; it was like Godric Gryffindor was standing and smiling, healthy as hale in front of them all. Everyone thought Godric Gryffindor was dead as well, after all.

"Sirius?" Lily began this time.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Alice?"

"Oh. That. Uh…not…here?"

"That's not very helpful, is it?"

"No, I guess it isn't."

"Sirius! Where is Alice?!"

"Well, she...uh…might be…uh…in my dorm?"

"And what is she doing there?"

"Um…my wand…um…kinda slipped…and…kinda...stunned her?"

"You WHAT?" Lily yelped.

"Miss Evans, please! Lessons are about to begin!" Professor Flitwick said as he entered the classroom.

"Sorry Professor. _You WHAT?!_" Lily hissed again.

"I swear, it was in self defense!"

"I don't care! You attacked my friend! Oh Merlin you are going to get it this time, Sirius Black,"

"Oh so it's fine when your Jamesie-poo does it but not me?"

"Yes-I mean no-I-Oh, go to hell, Black."

James had turned a peculiar shade of red.

"So there it is," Sirius continued smugly. "If you want to punish me, you'll have to punish James too, and we all know you can't bear to."

"Fine! I won't put you into detention for the next thousand years if you go into your dorm right now, wake Alice up, and bring her own to class safe and sound."

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"You ever come across a sleeping dragon before?"

"What? I-no!"

"Word of advice, if you ever do, _don't_ wake it up."

"Sirius!"

"Oh fine, I'll go. Prof?"

"Yes, Mister Black?"

"May I go to the toilet please?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Mister Black, but I was under the impression that you just came in from breakfast."

"I did."

"Might you not have gone to the toilet then?'

"Well…bad system, Prof."

Professor Flitwick sighed. In all his years of teaching he had never come across a student quite as blatant about skipping class as Sirius Black.

"Very well, Mister Black, but fail the test on the Glamour Charm we are going through today and you will be in remedial Charms until Easter, is that clear?"

"As crystal, Prof. I've already got all the Glamour I need."

And with the peculiar look of a gladiator walking into the arena to face his death, Sirius stalked out of the classroom.

The Professor raised his eyebrows. Usually whoops and cheers accompanied a 'you may go' from him.

* * *

**A/N: Belated Christmas present! Oh well I really couldn't get this chapter to flow the way I want it to, so I'm just going to post this. Sorry if it's kinda a filler. Merry X'mas and a happy New Year to you all!**

**To my dear reviewers:**

**DawnEclipse: Glad you like it! Hope this new chapter is up to mark, not much funny stuff though.**

**NaginiIncarnation: That 'Astalavista' was just a spur of the moment thing, but glad you liked it. Thanks for reading, and hope you like this chapter!**

**amaramichelle: My god you sugar freak hahaha. Syrup drinking is reallyreallyreally bad for health. Trust me, and Alice, on this.**

**Rider Arya Svit-Kona: Yeah, I kinda modeled Alice after her, I'm a dirtydirty ripper off-er, but I'll try to tweak her up, ok?**

**Fluffy no Danna: Glad you liked the characters. I'm actually captain of my school's squash team as well, and it really is fun in a sadistic way to be such an arse to your team hehehe.**

**bellatrixmate: Hey to my first ever reviewer for this fic! Thanks, and hope you continue liking this story!**

**Stine Weasley: See, it's not healthy to stay up reading fanfics up till 4.20am in the morning, but since you reviewed, all is forgiven. Haha. Thanks for reading, and hope you like this chapter too!**


	9. We'l Never Be As Young As We Are Tonight

**Chapter 8: We Will Never Be As Young As We Are Tonight**

Not surprisingly, Sirius was not seen by a living soul (or dead, for that matter) for the rest of the day. Alice returned to class by lunchtime, smiling to herself in what the Marauders thought an extremely devious way.

On the other hand, they all unanimously agreed that Sirius got what was coming to him, so no one bothered to actively search for their lost and probably severely brain damaged friend, but only kept a lazy eye out for him throughout the day, to no avail.

At dinner, Lily was pulled over by Professor McGonagall on the way into the Great Hall.

"Miss Evans? May I have a word?"

"Sure," Lily replied, and skipped over to her Head of House.

James raised his eyebrows, unable to figure what was going on; Lily would never be caught dead getting into trouble, and the Professor would surely include him in any Head business. Right? Right. He hoped.

Scanning the crowd for any signs for Sirius, whom he was seriously beginning to worry about, and finding nothing, James followed Remus, Peter, Alice and Kelly into the Hall.

"What was that all about?" Alice asked lightly.

"No idea." James replied.

"James has no idea what Lily is up to? Now that's something new," Kelly butted in, giggling as usual.

"Oh shut up,"

"Probably just Head business," Remus said.

"Hmmm. Then what's James doing here?"

"Maybe the Professor decided James wasn't as trustworthy as Dumbledore thought after all," Peter said, his mouth full of food already.

"Peter, don't talk with your mouth full, it's disgusting." Remus commented in a seemingly dignified way. Noticing James downcast look, he continued kindly. "Don't worry James, you've been doing a very good job so far, there's no way the Professor wouldn't trust you with anything."

James brightened up quickly; he was one those people who never seem to be downhearted until you get to know him. Fortunately Remus also knew he was one of the few people who was able to cheer him up quickly, if only because they spent so much time together.

"Oh for Merlin's sake stop stroking his ego, Remus," Kelly rolled her eyes.

Now already back into full confident-James mode, James laughed.

"My ego is good as it is, Kelly, no need for stroking, but if you really want to you're welcome to try,"

"What's this about stroking of egos, James?" Lily remarked as she sat down beside James, a fact that everyone, including James, picked up on. Lily Evans never, ever, sat down next to James Potter voluntarily.

'Uh…nothing?" James, at a rare loss for words, replied.

"Good, cos' your ego needs no stroking as it is."

"Told you, Thompson, but you wouldn't listen," James smirked at his Seeker.

"God, Lils, must you take his side in even conversation now?"

"What did I do now?!" Lily replied in mock outrage.

And the rest of their dinner conversation continued in similar manner, James' grin getting bigger with each second Lily was in such proximity to him.

No one noticed Alice was keeping even quieter than usual, slight smile still on her face.

* * *

Back in the Gryffindor Common Room, the Marauders decided to check their dormitory for any signs of their friend, while the girls lounged around the fireplace, talking.

"I love these fluffy cushions!" Kelly exclaimed as she plopped onto a makeshift bed of said pillows.

"Kelly, they're shared by everyone,"

"Yeah, so?" Her voice was slightly muffled as she buried her face in a couple of the cushions.

"They're not clean!"

"How?"

"It could have been under Sirius' butt just yesterday, for example."

This quickly put paid to any affection Kelly felt for the cushions.

"Speaking of Sirius, what exactly did you do to him, Alice?" Kelly said as she resettled herself on a couch, vigorously rubbing her face.

"Well, nothing very violent or evil."

"Alice, you just described about twenty thousand ways you could have sought revenge without being violent or evil, like poisoning him or gently removing his ability to be a father. We want details!" Kelly whined.

"I'm not going to tell you what I did, it's embarrassing."

"That's not allowed! We are your girlfriends, remember?" Lily said.

"True, but as I remember this very morning you withheld some information relating to James from us as well,"

Lily turned red very quickly, which effectively shut her up. Kelly, however, was another matter.

"So I don't get to hear anything? Oh c'mon," Kelly whined again, tugging on her two friends' sleeves.

It took her about five more minutes to wheedle out more information from Alice, after which they were all so shocked Lily's letter from James was all but forgotten.

* * *

Remus opened the door to their dormitories, after being forced to be James and Peter on the premise that he had closed it when they left, which he felt did not really qualify as a reason, but the Marauders had never been conventional.

A sense of foreboding overcame all three of them, encouraged by the fact that the room was completely pitch dark.

By the light streaming in from the open door, they made out a figure laid out on the floor of the dormitory, unmoving.

"Sirius?" Remus ventured cautiously.

No response.

The three of them scuttled closer to the possible corpse.

James ventured a poke with his toe.

No response.

Then….

"Guys?"

"Sweet Merlin, he's alive!" James exclaimed.

"Oh shut up, I'm the drama queen." Sirius intoned from the floor.

"True. What are you doing on the floor, in the dark?"

"I just told you I'm a drama queen. I was going for the foreboding effect."

"Yeah, well, you're an idiot."

"Ok." Sirius continued, still on his prone position on the floor, facing the ceiling.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"It's…complicated."

"We guessed, what with the pitch black room and a seemingly dead body on the floor."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that _lipstick_ on your mouth?"

"Chapstick, actually."

"What're you doing with chap-OH SWEET MERLIN!" James exclaimed, as he and Remus grasped what had happened between Sirius and Alice at the same time; predictably, Peter was left in the dust, asking what the hell was going on.

"You _kissed_ her?!" Remus asked.

"Yeah." Sirius replied, a vague smile on his face now.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah, but I'm an idiot in love."

"What?!"

"You heard me."

'What-how-you-she-" James and Remus could only splutter in disbelief. Sirius Black, resident playboy, Casanova-incarnate, declaring voluntarily that he was in _love?_

It was an occasion with an impact practically on the same scale as the founding of Hogwarts, the defeat of Grindelwald; its repercussions would be felt far into the future.

"Ok, who are you, and what have you done to the real Sirius Black?" Remus said after the inevitable silence that greeted those words.

"I'm Sirius Black, and I've been lying here all day."

"We can tell. Thanks for the heads up though." James commented drily.

"Seriously-don't you dare, Sirius-what the hell happened up here? And do you mind getting up so we don't have to stand around what feels like your dead body?" Remus asked as he walked over to his bed and sat down.

Sirius sighed a couple of times, dragged himself up, and went over to his bed.

"Well, I came in just as you lady love had asked," He began, gesturing towards James, who ignored the insinuation.

"And?"

"And I lifted the Stunning Spell on her,"

"And?"

"And she started yelling at me, cos' I'd disarmed her before waking her up and she couldn't hex me,"

"Good thinking there mate."

"Yeah. Anyway, she was yelling and yelling and all I could think of was she looked really pretty."

"And?"

"And…well, she was kinda noisy so I kissed her to shut her up."

"What?! How does that make any sense?!"

"I dunno, it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

"And?"

"And she kissed me back, and it wasn't like just any kiss, y'know, it felt really good, and I never wanted it to stop."

"I'd never thought I'd see the day Sirius Black got so enraptured just by a kiss." Remus mused.

"What's enraptured?" Peter piped up.

"It's- never mind, Pete." James sighed. "What happened then?"

"She pulled away, and ran off after nicking her own wand back while we were snogging."

"That's it? You didn't do anything?"

"I was too stunned to move."

"That explains why you were on the floor."

"Yeah, I kinda just laid there after a while."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."

"I think we've already established that fact. Can we move on?"  


* * *

"You what?!" Lily and Kelly exclaimed.

"We kissed." Alice said, smiling vaguely.

"You kissed _Sirius Black_?!"

"As I have already told you to multiple times, yes, we kissed."

"Oh Merlin." Kelly said, shaking her head, unable to accept the fact.

"I don't even know what to think." Lily continued for Kelly.

"Oh I know what I think," Alice replied.

"Really? Enlighten us."

"I think Sirius Black is a really good kisser."

Lily and Kelly groaned.

"Alice, no matter how good of a kisser he is, Sirius Black still means trouble. T-R-O-U-B-L-E."

"I know how to spell."

"But you obviously have no idea how to choose who to kiss!"

"Oh relax," Alice replied, rolling her eyes. "We just kissed. It doesn't mean anything."

"Yes it does! You _kissed_!"

Alice sighed. Her friends were taking this wayyyyyyyyyy too seriously (pun not intended). She knew who Sirius Black was; his reputation, his attitude towards commitment. Did they really think she was stupid? He had kissed her first, and while she didn't really allow herself to think that he did it for any other reason than to shut her up, it had been enjoyable, and you didn't get a chance to kiss Sirius Black everyday.

So she had kissed him back, then remembered herself and walked away. She didn't really expect anything to come of it. Who was she kidding? It's Sirius Black they were talking about, here. She was probably lucky he wasn't boasting about his latest 'conquest' loudly in the Common Room, the pig.

* * *

Once the discussion about Sirius and Alice's kiss was exhausted, which admittedly took a very long time, even though Alice seemed much less than inclined to talk about it, the three girls retreated to their four poster beds, ostensibly to sleep.

Lily Evans, however, had other plans tonight.

After waiting for her roommates to fall asleep, she slipped out of bed and dorm, careful to keep quiet as a cat.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she spotted James Potter, waiting for her on a couch in front of the now gently smoldering fireplace.

"Sorry I'm late," She said, soft voice sounding very loud in the now deserted Common Room.

"Hey," James said by way of greeting, standing up to face her.

"Um…Hi?" Lily began again, unsure of what to say.

James chuckled. "Hi, Lily. You want to talk here, or do you have some place else you prefer?"

"How about the grounds? I've never out in the grounds at night before."

"Really?"

"Really. Here's where your invisibility cloak comes in handy, yes?"

"Um…Yeah." James was never very comfortable with Lily's knowledge of his prized cloak; a part of him would always associate her with strict rule-following and general tattletale-ing, an instinct probably honed from their first few years together in Hogwarts.

"Lead the way then," Lily said.

James pulled out his Invisibility Cloak from nowhere with a flourish, and Lily could not help but stare at the sheer…magic-ness…of the object which she only ever glimpsed in James' bag before.

Coming from the Muggle world, with no knowledge of this wondrous other universe until she was eleven, magical artifacts and feats still occasionally took her breath away. She had a feeling, however, that even snobbish pure bloods raised like royalty from birth would not be able to conceal their wonder when faced with such a cloak; as far as she knew, Invisibility Cloaks generally lasted for at most three years or so before losing some of their powers.

She also knew that James' cloak had been passed to him from his parents since the first day he was at Hogwarts, which meant it had already lasted for at least seven years, and probably had provided impenetrable concealment for a far longer period of time. She had never heard of such a powerful artifact before.

She could only imagine its cost.

A quick, easy journey through the castle later they stood upon the banks of the lake. It was, Lily thought, incredibly easy for them to sneak through the castle undetected, what with their invisibility as well as James' impossibly complete knowledge of secret passageways and shortcuts.

James quickly transfigured a twig on the ground into a picnic mat, and gave a medieval bow in Lily's direction.

"After you, Madame,"

"I thought Sirius was the drama queen." Lily laughed lightly as she sat on the mat, James following suit soon after.

"That's the second time I've heard that today. My inner thespian grieves at the lack of attention afforded it."

"Oh shut it." Lily admonished, but laughed all the same. She found herself in this peculiar state most of the time around James nowadays; completely, utterly, unable to be angry at him, no matter how stupid he was being.

It was not a comforting thought.

"So…how is Sirius?" Lily began, deliberately skirting the fact that James had asked her out, obviously to tell her something.

"Surprisingly in one piece. I assume you've heard about their…ah…little escapade?"

Lily laughed. "Yes. I thought Alice might have left out some details, like murdering him after kissing him."

"You know, I would not be surprised if that happened, like a little seducing before the kill, but I think what she's done to him is much worse."

"Oh yeah? What happened to him?"

"It's bad Lils. He's declaring himself in love."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, Sirius is always serious."

"Oh shut up."

"It's true, I've never seen him like that, mooning over a girl, blank to the world,"

"As opposed to the other three of you who do that all the time, I'm sure."

"Not all the time, but sometimes…sometimes I do." James said in a soft voice, giving her a blazing look.

Lily was temporarily overcome with the intensity of the look; something she always assumed that the Neolithic barbarian James Potter would be incapable of. The extent of her mistake in that assumption was made clear to her now.

"Really?" She continued, trying for a nonchalant, bemused tone. She failed spectacularly, of course. "Who's the girl?"

James was about to answer when he was cut off.

"Never mind, I don't want to know," Lily said, holding up a hand, her face full of mischief, but she knew why she had stopped him- she was afraid to find out who James Potter mooned over, that it would be her, and, truth be told, even more afraid that the girl was _not_ her.

Basically, she had no idea what she wanted.

"So…what did you call me out for?" She continued, getting to the crux of the matter- why had James Potter asked her out, and in such a supposedly subtle way?

"I…well…I wanted to tell you something." James stammered uncharacteristically.

"I'm listening,"

"Um…I actually don't quite know how to put this."

"Do you want me to wait, or is it ok if I head up to grab some sle-"

At this point Lily stopped; she caught sight of his eyes looking at her, and she could not tear her own eyes away from the orbs that she knew were hazel but seemed black under the moonlight.

"It's fine, I think-I think I've got it," James breathed.

"Well?"

"I-I think you know, Lily, that I kinda like you. A lot. And call me crazy, but I think this year you've been a lot friendlier to me than…in the past. And…well…I guess what I wanted to tell you, is that I like you, as something a lot more than just friends, and…if you're willing, of course, that I want you to go out with me."

Lily's mind was a blank. She had no idea what to say, no idea what to think, no idea of what she really wanted. _He confessed._

So she did what she had wanted to do for a long time; she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. His eyes widened, but quickly closed as he, too, became involved in the kiss.

Neither of them had ever felt anything like it. It was as if they had suddenly been convinced that they were cannibals, and nothing tasted as good as the others mouths.

They came up for breath, and neither could think of a more romantic scene for their first kiss, the moon reflected in the lake and shining upwards at them.

"So that's a yes?"

Lily laughed.

"Yes, silly."

And this time James was leaning in towards her, and she let him.

* * *

About five metres away, five figures gave a collective 'awwww' from the tree they were currently under.

Obviously, James and Lily were unaware of their friends' subterfuge.

"About bloody time." Sirius whispered to the others, mindful to stay away from the silhouette that he knew to be Alice Prewett. He really had no idea what to say to her, or if anything was required.

Remus hushed them, and gestured for them to go back into the castle, having probably the most decency among the five of them and therefore currently feeling the most guilty.

The rest agreed, if only because back in the Common Room they could gossip more freely about their two friends.

"As I was saying, about bloody time," Sirius said the moment they stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room, aided ably by the Marauders' Map, still studiously ensuring Remus, Peter and Kelly were at all times between him and Alice.

"It's rare, but I think I might have to agree with you this time, Si." Remus remarked.

"It's great, yes," Kelly agreed.

Peter yawned.

"You know, I think we are horrible, horrible friends." Alice began.

"What?! Why?!" Sirius replied, forgetting who he was talking to in mind of the fact that anyone had called him a horrible friend.

"Well, its just…this was kinda big, and they would probably want to tell us about together, if and when they are ready."

"True, but there is a very simple solution for that." Remus replied.

"Really? Like what?" Kelly questioned.

"Like we pretend we know nothing about it, and when they tell us about we act all shocked and surprised." Remus explained patiently.

They all looked impressed; while it was true that Remus, being of considerable intellect, came up with such deviousness all the time he rarely revealed it due to the fact that his superior brainpower also gave him weird ideas like honour and honesty.

Which seemed to all be thrown out of the window now apparently.

"Well, I think it's a great idea, keeps James and Lily from knowing about you ladies' nosiness." Sirius said with a wink at Kelly.

"We're nosy?! Who did we meet in the Common Room going after James?!"

"Well, without us you wouldn't have had half a chance of following them with out being caught, and you know it. You're neither invisible nor do you possess an uncanny sense of the location of Filch and Mrs. Norris."

"That has nothing to do with nosiness."

Sirius thought about this for a while.

"That's true. But nevertheless, I maintain that you are nosy."

"Oh shut up."

"Ok guys, I think it's time for bed." Remus said.

"Why?" Alice asked.

Remus pointed at the sleeping form of Peter Pettigrew on the couch, snoring softly.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the extremely long time taken to post this up, but I was really busy over the X'mas and New Year period, what with parties every other night and sleeping half the day away. Good times =D. Thanks to all who read and reviewed, and hope you like this chapter, which is the longest so far as a form of apology to anyone waiting for an update, and also where something (two things actually xD) major finally happens. Also, I would like some of you opinions on how this story should progress after they graduate: Canon, or AU? Tell me what you think!

* * *

**

**To:**

**DawnEclipse: It's great to have people appreciate your writing, so thank you very much. Maybe you could introduce more friends to this fic, yeah? Enjoy this chapter!**

**Lily-James-forevs: Now you know what happens haha. Hope you like this one!**

**Rider Arya Svit-kona: Hello again! Tell me what you think of this chapter yeah?**

**Stine Weasley: There you have it; tell me how you feel about this chapter ASAP ok?**


	10. Be Kind, Rewind

**Chapter 9: Be Kind, Rewind**

"It's late."

"It's actually really early."

"What?"

"It's two thirty in the morning, Lils. If that's not early I don't know what is."

"Oh shut up."

Standing on the banks of the lake, both Head students had slightly ruffled, untidy appearances, mostly due to the excessive rolling and…other actions done over the past hour or so.

Holding hands, they made their way to the huge doors leading to the Entrance Hall.

"So, I guess we're…together now, huh?" James said.

"I guess," Lily replied, smiling.

"Do…we tell the rest?"

"The rest of?"

"Our friends, the school, the world."

Lily laughed lightly. "Maybe just our friends first."

"Ok, but you should know that telling Sirius is as good as telling the world at large."

"That's just as well, cos' they'll probably find out sooner or later."

"That's good."

"Why?"

"Now everyone will know Lily Evans is my girlfriend. Wow, you have no idea how awesome tha- what's that?"

James scanned the dark forest, where he had just seen a sudden movement that looked suspiciously like a person dashing for cover.

"What's what?" Lily asked, startled by James' sudden tug on her hand.

"I just saw someone in the forest."

"Just?" Lily asked, disbelieving. James' body was entirely tensed up, determined to seek out whatever was in the forest.

"Yes."

Lily scanned the treeline herself; it was completely black to her eyes, even under the moonlight, and she was certain that even if there was someone there, James could not have seen it.

Then she saw it as well, a flash of black on black, reflecting the moonlight. Leather, probably. A belt? It was impossible to tell, the figure, or whatever it was, moved too fast.

Both had tightened their grips on each other's hand to painful levels in their surprise; the only students foolhardy enough to charge into the Forbidden Forest were probably the Marauders, and James would surely know of any plans they had in there. The adrenaline now rushing through their veins put them in a haze, and they barely noticed each other's vice like grip.

"Any idea who or what is that?" Lily began, possibilities rushing through her head, each as unlikely as the last.

"No. We need to tell Dumbledore of this." James replied, eyes still straining to pick out any more movement from under the cover of the trees. Their surroundings, romantic and enchanting a moment earlier, was now eerie and forbidding, the whole grounds giving the both of them bad vibes.

"Now? Won't he be asleep?"

"Probably, but we still have to. Remember what he told us at the start of the year?"

"About Voldemort and the school? You think this is something to do with him?"

"Maybe, maybe not, but I'm not going to take the risk of it being something to do with him and Dumbledore not knowing of it."

Lily nodded; James was right. This was far more serious than snogging couples in the Astronomy Tower, and Dumbledore had to know of it, now.

"I'll drop you off at the Common Room before going up to Dumbledore's office."

"What? Don't be ridiculous, I'm going with you."

"Please, Lily, what ever is out there may be exceedingly dangerous."

"And?" Lily arched an eyebrow, barely visible in the dim light.

James sighed. Nothing was going to convince Lily to return to the Common Room first, he knew. He consoled himself by reasoning that anything that had the power to hurt them in the Entrance Hall would probably have the power to hurt Lily in the Common Room.

"Ok. Let's go."

The journey up to the Headmaster's office was surprisingly quiet, giving them no chance of notifying anyone before the Professor; James had complained that when you needed Filch or one of the ghosts they were no where to be found.

The gargoyles spoke to them the moment they approached.

"Bit late to be out and about, looking for the Headmaster, no?" The one on the right growled.

"We have to see the headmaster immediately, please. It's urgent!" Lily said breathlessly, the effort to keep up with James' long, purposeful strides not really meant for one whose most strenuous exercise was dinner every night.

"Urgent now, is it? It's still mighty late." The gargoyle replied with a tone of suspicion.

"Look, we have to see the Headmaster, by hook or by crook, so either you let us in, announce our arrival, or I'll blast you and the door to pieces and get him myself." Lily's eyes flashed, her anger apparent.

"Threats from the Head Girl, how unbecoming-" The gargoyle stopped its indignant rant as James pulled out his wand.

"Alright, alright I'll announce you to the Headmaster, no need to get your wand out. There had better be a good reason for this."

"There is," James said, gesturing for the gargoyle to go on and call for Professor Dumbledore.

There was no movement or sound from either of the gargoyles, but a moment later the doors opened, showing them the same familiar spiral staircase.

As they entered the Headmaster's office, they found the Professor in what were presumably his pyjamas: star-and-moon decorated silk robes complete with a silk nightcap.

"Mr Potter and Miss Evans. To what do I owe this very late pleasure?" He began, smiling genially at them as always from behind his desk.

"Sorry for waking you up Professor," Lily started. "But we had to see you immediately, as we saw something in the forest."

Dumbledore frowned. "What might this- ah, thing- be?"

"We had no idea," James continued. "But it didn't look friendly, and we were worried that it might have had something to do with Voldemort."

"Indeed. But with no visual reference at all, how can the two of you be sure it is a foreign creature with malicious intent?"

James and Lily were temporarily lost for words. They weren't sure it wasn't something that already belonged in the Forest, except it just didn't feel right.

On the other hand, you don't just walk up to your Headmaster at 2.30am in the morning and tell him something is true because you felt like it.

Dumbledore seemed to sense this, and broke the silence. "Very well, James and Lily, rest assured I will check and make sure that there is nothing in the Forest that should not be there."

"Ok Professor."

"Now please, return your beds, and I shall not have to inquire as to what you were doing in the grounds at two a.m. in the morning."

They had the good grace to look ashamed, and hurried to leave the office.

* * *

Approaching the portrait hole that led into the Gryffindor Common Room, the Fat Lady raised her eyebrows as she saw them coming.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Head Boy and Girl. Bit late for a walk, isn't it?" She commented.

"It is a bit late, yes. Felix Felicis." James replied, giving her the password, after which the Fat Lady had no choice but to swing aside, unable to inquire further about their late night excursion.

James held the portrait to one side as Lily climbed through.

"You don't have to that, you know." Lily said as James came scrambling after her.

"Do what?"

"Hold doors open for me and stuff."

"Oh. Really?"

"Really. If you want the full unabridged version of the essay on how I can take care of myself I can yell at you tomorrow, but I'm really tired now." Lily asserted, but the slight smile on her face gave her away.

"I do things like that because I want to, not because I think you can't take care of yourself or anything."

"Awww."

"I mean it."

Lily smiled, and gave him another kiss. "Then I guess it's fine. It's late, we should probably get to sleep."

"Never thought I'd hear Lily Evans tell me that."

"Oh don't spoil the moment, you berk."

"So romantic, my girlfriend." James grinned and leaned in for a goodnight kiss. She obliged before heading up the staircases to her own dormitory.

"Lily!" James half-shouted as she was about to enter her room.

"Yeah?"

"I'll meet you here tomorrow for breakfast, ok?"

"You do that every morning already."

"Never hurts to be sure. Goodnight, Lils."

"Night, James."

She stepped into her dormitory, and was gone.

* * *

It almost completely dark in her dormitory, except for rare swathes of moon and starlight coming in from the half shut windows.

Until someone said, "Lumos."

With her wand pointed straight at Lily's face.

"Ow! Who's that?!" Lily exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the bright glare of wand light.

"Alice and Kelly, who are no longer your best friends, because you did not tell us about your little excursion with James," Kelly said with an evil grin on her face hat Lily probably could not see.

Lily sighed. She should have known that these nosy parkers were going to know about her 'date'.

"Oh please, you could never stop being friends with me, you two love me too much."

"Presumptuous, but we can overlook that, Evans, if you _spill._"

"Oh c'mon girls, I'm tired! It's two a.m. in the morning! And could you get that light out of my face?"

"Lils, you're only tired because you had a date with James, while we didn't, so we aren't tired. In fact, we've been very pumped up on adrenaline waiting for you to come back and discussing what dirty things you two were up to, so we can go all night if we have to."

Lily groaned.

"Also, it is currently three a.m., not two, in the morning. We don't see your point."

Lily groaned again. With the two of them rambling on like this she would be lucky to get an hour of sleep tonight.

"And about that light, anything can be arranged, Lily," Kelly said, leaning in towards her friend, blocking out the light. "If you cooperate."

"Could you stop speaking like a sadistic interrogator?" Lily said as she pulled the wand away from her face.

"It's the only way to get you to spill, Lily. If you could keep something so huge from us for a whole day, what else can we do?"

"Um. Sleep?"

"No!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"I hate cherries, Lil. You knew that!"

"Damn."

"Now, if you don't want your friends to be feel disappointed-" Kelly said, but was cut off by Alice.

"And sad,"

"And betrayed," Kelly added.

"Abandoned,"

"Taken in,"

"Dejected,"

"Depressed,"

"Morose,"

"Heartbroken,"

"Disconsolate,"

"Betrayed,"

"You already said that!" Alice laughed, nudging her friend. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I did? Oh well. Anyway, the point is, we would feel disappointed and sad and betray-"

"Don't start again," Lily whined.

"Fine. Just spill."

"I-he-you-" Lily sighed. "Alright, since it seems like the only way I would get any sleep tonight."

"Yes!" Alice cheered. Kelly threw her arms in the air in celebration of their triumph.

"I'll go grab some snacks and drinks from my trunk!" Kelly said and sprinted around to her own bed, rummaging through her stuff in search of sugar.

Meanwhile, Alice got started.

"Well, Lily?"

"Well what?"

"Start spilling!" Alice whined. "You promised!"

"Oh alright. He sent me a letter this morning, as you imbeciles well know."

"Yes we do. And do NOT start without me!" Kelly said as she barged onto Lily's bed, where they all were now, dumping a huge assortment of sweets, sweet drinks, and various other sugar containing compounds all over.

"Doesn't make you two any less imbecilic."

"Stop changing the subject."

"Well, it started from the letter-"

And they talked, the night through, squealing and giggling as needed at appropriate moments, and after a while Lily got caught up in the excitement as well, smiling more and more as she remembered her time with James, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.

* * *

"Hey guys." James said as he walked into the dormitory room, seemingly unsurprised to see all his roommates waiting up for him. (Except Peter, who was dead to the world.)

"Hey, lover boy." Sirius said in the most suggestive tone he could muster, which was very suggestive indeed.

"Hey James," Remus greeted, unable to keep a grin of his face.

"You guys followed me?"

"Yeah."

"Thought so."

"Yeah."

"Wouldn't have expected anything less."

"Yeah."

"You guys didn't go anywhere near the Forbidden Forest, though, right?"

"Right."

"Ok."

"Why, did something kinky in the Forest, Jamesie?" Sirius asked, grinning madly.

"Shut up, and no."

"Kissed her up real good anyway, right?"

"Right." James replied, unable to keep his own grin off his face.

"Tongue?"

"Yeah."

"Goodo."

"Yeah. Night guys."

"Night." Sirius and Remus replied, hopping into bed.

James gave a wave of his wand and all the lights in the room went out, very much unlike the dorm next door, where if one listened, shrill giggling and the occasional 'awwww' could be heard.

* * *

The silence that struck the hall dumb as James and Lily entered the Great Hall the next morning, holding hands, was as complete as they come.

Then, like a jet engine revving up, the volume of conversation went up slowly until it was probably the noisiest breakfast anyone had encountered for quite a while at Hogwarts, possibly because the teachers, too, were much too shocked and engaged in their own conspiracy theories ("Love potion, no doubt about it," said Professor Slughorn) to shush the students.

James, used to such attention on varying degrees with the Marauders or the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, waved cheekily back at the Hall.

Lily, of course, was mortified.

"Are they still staring?" Lily asked, as they took their seats beside the rest of the Seventh Year Gryffindors, face hidden behind her face.

"Nope. They're talking and pointing though." James replied, obviously delighted at the attention.

"I really should have thought this through better, instead of letting you 'wing it'." Lily groaned.

"Look on the bright side, Lils," Kelly said beside her friend in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Which is?"

"Well…I…um…kinda thought it would have been obvious…James?" Kelly, stumped, asked for help.

James laughed. "The bright side is, everyone now knows James Potter is your boyfriend, Lils, and I don't know how it can get better than-"

At this point he was cut off by a vicious smack on the back of the head, courtesy of Lily.

"Ow."

"Look at you two, acting all lovey-dovey." Sirius grinned, as James rubbed his head where Lily had smacked him.

"Sirius?"

"Yes, my darling Lily?"

"Would you like a smack on the head as well?" Lily replied, smiling sweetly.

Sirius kept his head down and mumbled a "no."

"Good. I'm hands are tired of all the smacking these days any way." Lily said, sweet smile still intact. "Where's Alice, by the way?"

"We were kinda hoping you would have an answer to that." Remus replied. "We saw Kelly in the Common Room but Alice was nowhere to be found."

"Yeah, she was the first out of the shower and was gone when I came out." Kelly nodded.

"What about you, Lils? Saw her this morning?" Remus asked.

"Nope, she was dead to the world. We talked the whole night through and she fell asleep for a catnap the moment we stopped talking." Kelly giggled.

"I did tell you I was tired, but would you listen? No." Lily said indignantly.

"You didn't seem tired when I told you James was waiting for you in the Common Room."

Lily turned a very peculiar shade of red.

"Jumped out of bed like she had too much janjaweed last night, really." Kelly continued, grinning evilly.

"Awwwww. Missed me already?" James laughed, putting an arm around her, allowing her to bury her face in his chest.

Of course, her embarrassment did nothing to abate the strength she put into the smacks she directed at James for that remark.

"Alice isn't the only one missing today." Remus said, rolling his eyes at the couple.

"Who else's missing?" Peter asked, frowning.

"Dumbledore's not at his usual seat today."

This sobered James and Lily up immediately.

"What?" Sirius asked, sensing the sudden tension radiating from the two of them.

"It…it's complicated." James said tightly, mind already racing back to the shadow he saw in the Forest the previous night.

"Like he-caught-you-two-snogging-and-you-killed-him-complicated, or like-"

"Shut it, Si, this is really serious." James cut him off.

"What happened last night?" Kelly asked, truly concerned now.

James and Lily gave each other a look.

"Well, it began when we were heading back to the castle…"

* * *

They found Alice already in Defense class, bearing an enigmatic smile, seemingly very pleased with herself.

"Alice!" Kelly and Lily exclaimed, as though they had not seen each other in years, all thoughts of the mysterious figure in the Forest forgotten. The boys rolled their eyes.

"Hi guys," She greeted everyone.

"Where were you?" Kelly asked accusingly. "You left me to rot with these bunch of idiots here back at the Common Room, and you turn up here smiling away like nothing has happened!"

"Hey! We're not idiots!" Sirius protested.

"That remains to be seen, mate." James said drily, patting his friend on the shoulder.

"Oh shut up."

"Seriously, Alice, where were you?" Lily asked again, ignoring the boys' antics.

"Not with Sirius, that's for sure."

"Shut up, Black, you imbecile." Lily glared.

"Well, he was right, I was definitely not with him." Alice remarked.

"That's a relief, I must say-" Kelly began, but quickly changed track. "Wait a minute. That implies you were with someone else!"

Alice just kept smiling.

"WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO?" Kelly and Lily repeatedly incessantly in a bid to get a scandal out of their friend, punctuating every word with a poke.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

The Marauders rolled their eyes and retreated to their usual seats at the back of the class, where they had much more important things to discuss, even though Sirius whined that he wanted to know who Alice was with at breakfast.

Much, much more important things.

"Guys, this is getting out of hand. The school has been peaceful for weeks!" James addressed the rest in a grave tone, though the look on his face was mischievous.

"I agree with you, buddy, but can't we do this later in class like we always do? I want to-"

"Do what?" Peter asked.

"Plan for our next prank." Remus answered, resigned to the fact that he would, once again, be required to be an unwilling party to whatever havoc these three twisted minds in front of him could conjure.

"You read my mind, Moony." James replied briskly, all business.

"How about my mind? Read my mind, James, my mind! I want to go find out who-"

Once again, Sirius was roundly ignored by the other three, who had discussed this briefly while Sirius was in the shower for, as usual, an inordinately long time for a male, and decided that the best course of action concerning Sirius' little crush was to ignore it.

Unsurprisingly, Sirius did not take kindly to it.

"How about a little aging potion in the Slytherins' goblets?" Peter supplied.

"Overdone and under-supplied for that, Pete." James shook his head. The Professor walked into the room. The Marauders paid no attention, although the volume of noise coming from Alice, Lily and Kelly dropped considerably.

"We'll have to go into the Forest to grab some wild fern sap for that, and there's no way I'm going to let anyone go into Forest for now, at least until Dumbledore gets back to me and Lily." He continued.

Remus looked impressed. "Well, well, maybe Lily _has_ made somewhat of an impression on your brain."

"Shut up."

"Well then, what would we do?" Peter asked.

"I was thinking something along the lines of Quidditch." James smiled, not without a hint of malice.

"Ah, yes. The upcoming match against Ravenclaw." Remus nodded.

"What do we do there?" Peter asked again, looking more confused by the minute.

"I've got a couple of ideas in mind. And Peeves is getting bored." James replied, airily, before gesturing to the angrily staring Professor that yes, they were going to be good little boys from now.

"I still want to find out who Alice was with!" Sirius hissed.

He was ignored.

* * *

"You were with _Frank_?! Frank Longbottom?!" Kelly exclaimed in the quietest voice she knew how, which still drew the three of them a look from Professor Caldwell.

"Yes." Alice whispered back under her breath.

"What-what-what about Sirius?!" Lily asked, equally taken aback.

"Well, I don't know." Alice looked thoughtful, which was always a good thing in any class. "Nothing's happening on that front, so I thought Frank would be pretty cool. Not that I expected anything serious to happen with Sirius, of course."

Lily and Kelly groaned at her mischievous smile and pointless pun. Seven years, for seven years they had known Sirius and not a single day has gone by where no imbecile saw fit to utilise that retarded pun.

"So you're going out with Frank?" Kelly wrinkled her nose.

"He asked me out for the next Hogsmeade weekend after we talked for a while and he got his courage up, I suppose, and I said yes. And what's with that look?"

"He's in Hufflepuff, and not much of a fun guy, Alice."

"He's very sweet, and I thought you advised me to go for more stable guys after I kissed Sirius."

"Yeah, but this is a bit extreme, don't you think? Lily, back me up here."

"What I think is that my friend rocks!" Lily said, laughing.

"What, me? Why?" Alice replied, looking bewildered.

"Well, you know."

"No, I don't know."

"You're playing the field! Sowing your oats! Juggling two guys! You're like some field-playing oat-sowing juggler!" Lily said, giggling.

"Oh Merlin, James Potter has gotten to your head-" Alice groaned.

"I totally agree with Lils, now that I think about it, you oat-sowing juggling field player!" Kelly proclaimed, and fell about laughing with Lily.

"Nonono, you got it all wrong, it's field-playing first, so it goes field-playing-"

Alice groaned.

'_What_ did you two have for breakfast again?"

* * *

**A/N: Tada! Not really a very good, or exciting, chapter, kinda a filler, but I hope you guys will enjoy it! Also, I just read through Carlos Ruiz Zafon's 'The Shadow of the Wind', and it's excellent beyond all belief. Strongly recommended to everyone, young or old, avid reader or not. Might try to put some elements of the book into this story; a book burning masked man, drama, a 15-year-old Daniel falling for a Clara Barcelo twice his age. Next chapter's the next full moon, the year's first Quidditch match, and more Sirius/Alice stuff, all in one! And lastly, reviews are like Christmas presents: extremely looked forward to, and thoroughly enjoyed.

* * *

**

**P.S: If any of you find things between James and Lily going too fast over the last couple of chapters or so, I apologize, but c'mon, the whole WORLD knows they're gonna get together sooner or later, right? And also, I was bored, and had a writer's block the size of Asia regarding stuff about them, so you _have_ to forgive me. =D

* * *

**

**To:**

**DawnEclipse: Love potions, hmm. Idea for a prank in the making! Haha, thanks for reading and reviewing, and hope you like this one!**

**MissaRissa: Glad you liked it. Thank you very much for the review!**

**Lily-james-forevs: Here's the next chapter! Hope you like it as well!**

**Alambil-felicis: You are my new favourite person! I swear! If all reviewers were like you…I'd probably explode into bits of joy and excitement, haha. Hope you like this new chapter!**

**Rider Arya Svit-kona: Canon it is! Boom! Sorry bad pun, haha. Hope you like this new chapter!**


	11. Moonrise

**Chapter 10: Moonrise**

It was a dark, blustery November evening, and the onset of winter and the early sunset had set a gloomy mood over the whole castle of Hogwarts. It was not helped by the fact that its jovial, if slightly impertinent and at times unstable, headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore, had not been seen by any of the students of faculty for a couple of weeks now.

His unmatched magical prowess, ridiculously out of place jokes and general ability to project an aura of assured-ness to all around him was sorely missed, especially by the two current Head students of the school, James Potter and Lily Evans.

Albus Dumbledore knew all of this, of course, except perhaps the last bit about James and Lily, as he strode past the twin gargoyles guarding the gates of the school, looking as exhausted as anyone had seen him in a while.

Not that anyone was there to see him, of course, as anyone with any sense would be up in the castle, hiding from the unforgiving Scottish weather.

He walked around the lake, tired as he was, heading purposefully, if slowly, for the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"Welcome back, Headmaster." A voice called out softly, barely more than a whisper, as Dumbledore approached the treeline.

"Thank you, Tarak. I'm afraid I bring grave news." Dumbledore replied, his face unmoving. If one stared hard enough in the failing light one could just make out the silhouette what seemed like a man on a horse, tail swishing back and forth.

"Nothing we did not manage to already find out, I presume."

"No, the centaurs' predictions are accurate, as usual, to some extent."

"To some extent?" Tarak immediately shot back.

Dumbledore bowed his head.

"I meant no offence. I was simply referring to some parts i may have interpreted wrongly from the information I got, Tarak."

Tarak made no sound, nor did he show any inclination to help Dumbledore keep the conversation going.

"These two weeks have not been spent in vain, Tarak, despite what you think. I have confirmed everything that you have told me, and as a human I would think to make sure of predictions of such magnitude."

"Such magnitude? Headmaster, the only reason we helped you at all is because we respect you and your authority. Otherwise we would not have bothered with attempting to ask the stars of such banal matters, so far beyond our concern."

"And I once again thank you for your aid, but I think I have made my views known of your nonchalance of our affairs."

"And we have made our own views quite clear."

"Indeed you have. Forgive a stubborn old man. Now, I really want a cup of hot chocolate before I go to a bed I scarcely know anymore."

"Then I shall leave as well. Till we meet again, Dumbledore."

"Do you not care to join me for some chocolate?"

At this Tarak laughed. Humans and their little indulgences.

"No Headmaster, I do not. Farewell."

And Tarak was gone, leaving Albus Dumbledore standing under the rising full moon.

* * *

"Lily?" Alice asked aloud as she walked down the stairs into the Common Room.

"Hmm?" Came the groggy reply from a random couch. Lily Evans herself was nowhere in sight.

Alice rolled her eyes, went over to the couch where she knew James and Lily always 'studied' at.

Sure enough, Lily was draped over the couch, somewhere in the grey area between still asleep and barely awake.

"Lily," Alice began again, nudging her friend.

"Do whatever you want with me, just don't wake me up," Lily's muffled reply came, only half coherent.

Alice laughed, and spent the next five minutes experimenting with the extent to which Lily would keep to that statement.

Apparently, vigorous and slightly violent shaking was acceptable but cold water went just a bit too far.

"Okay, now you've got me awake, what do you want? And this better be good Alice." Lily said grumpily, drying out her hair with her wand.

Alice began drying her own hair out, as Lily had thrown out a half coherent Shield Charm,which warped into a Duplicating Spell, which then proceeded to drench the both of them.

"And you're supposed to be top of our year at Charms. No one Flitwick is freaking out about NEWTs." Alice said, laughing.

"No one would take their NEWTs half asleep, Flitwick freaks out about exams every year, and shut up."

Alice laughed again. "Okay, firebreather, clam down."

Lily huffed in irritation, sending her now dry fringe flying. "What can I do for you then, dearest Alice?"

"I need some help choosing out dresses for tomorrow's date."

"With Frank?"

"Yes."

"What about Kelly?" Lily groaned. What with Head Girl duties, patrolling, the ridiculous amount of work they have in NEWT year, her relationship with a certain James Potter, and that annoying mystery about that stupid figure in the Forest that was still unsolved, Lily Evans was a busy girl, and she really needed her sleep.

"Shes sleeping."

"Then why did you choose _me_ to wake up?" Lily exclaimed, outraged.

"I think you have better taste, Lils." Alice said, smiling sweetly.

Lily was irritated at herself for immediately feeling mollified, but she couldn't stop a begrudging smile from coming out.

"You're lying, because I know you hate waking Kelly up and letting her get all violent on you, but fine, I'll help you."

"I knew you would."

Lily stuck her tongue out and made a face, and let herself be led upstairs.

"Where's James?" Alice asked casually as they headed up the steps.

"Good question. He was right beside me before I fell asleep." Lily replied, brows furrowed.

"And you never wondered where he went until now?"

"I was tired."

"Oh Lils." Alice laughed again.

"Well, where do you think he is?"

"I honestly have no idea. He does this kind of thing every once in a while. Actually, you know that now I think about it, all of the boys disappear together every now and then."

"I can see how that would be especially distressing to the Head Girl."

"No, I don't think they're planning a prank or anything like that."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "Head Girl intuition?"

"Call it a girl's sixth sense," Lily replied, completely serious, as she pushed open the door to their dormitory. "And also, their pranks don't really seem to coincide with these disappearances."

"Good thinking."

"It happens," Lily grinned. "But keep it down, we don't want to wake Kelly up."

Alice clamped her hands over her mouth and shook her head vigorously; she had been on the receiving end of 'Kelly's-nap-ending-rage' one too many times, her eyes wide with terror.

Lily laughed softly, taking up her seat by the window and glancing at the full moon rising outside.

She paused.

"Alice? I think-I think I got it."

"Got what?"

"Why the guys always disappear once a month, always exactly once a month. Wake Kelly up."

* * *

A rabid wolf's howl echoed throughout the grounds. To the three boys standing just our of the range of the Whomping Willow, it was a call to action stations.

"Pete? Let's rock and roll." James gestured to a knot on the trunk of the tree.

Peter Pettigrew nodded, slightly in a cold sweat, and went rat.

The Marauders ride again.

* * *

He opened his eyes, and wished he hadn't. Light was a glaring bitch.

He closed his eyes, and heard a few people talking next to him.

He turned and saw three very familiar people looking at him.

"Hey guys." Remus Lupin managed to croak.

"Hey buddy!" Sirius, behaving much too lively than someone who has missed a full night's sleep had any reason to be, said. Way too loudly, of course. Any softer and it wouldn't be Sirius.

Remus winced, his head throbbing. "Shut up, Si."

"Oh alright. But just for you, you hear me?"

Remus smiled despite himself. "Why are you so cheerful this morning?"

"He had two shots of firewhiskey to perk himself up, as he calls it." James answered wearily.

"Yes I did!" Sirius grinned, extremely proud of himself.

Remus laughed in spite of himself. Only Sirius Black would think that downing two shots at eight in the morning was a good idea. Sometimes his friends did things so stupid it was worth it to laugh, even if it made his chest feel like exploding.

"Just wanted to see how you were doing before we headed down to Hogsmeade today, Moony." James continued.

"Right. Go ahead and have fun for me."

"I'm sorry you can't come, man. We'll grab some stuff from Honeydukes from you."

"That's alright. I'd much rather lie here and not move for quite some time, as you very well know."

That drew more laughter. Madam Pomfrey threw all four of them dirty looks from her counter at the other end of the room.

"See you then, Moony."

"Yeah, hope you'll be up and about by tonight when we get back, yeah? I'll tell my date to bring another friend for you at dinner." Sirius winked.

"That's real nice of you Si. What was your date's name again?" Remus replied, smiling slyly.

"Well Cindy- or Cheryl- it starts with a C anyway. That's not the point, Remus!"

"What happened to Alice?"

"That's a whole different thing all together, Remus."

"Sure it is."

* * *

They left, to go to Hogsmeade, just like the rest of the school.

He did not resent the fact that he could not go on a trip to the magical town, because he knew James would be with Lily, Sirius would be with whoever had caught his fancy in the past week, and he would have to be stuck with Peter, listen to him moan about how much his life sucked.

And no matter how many times he told himself that Peter was one of his best friends, he could not bring himself to think that was a cool way to spend his day.

He closed his eyes again, and willed his eyelids to become thicker. Light really was a glaring bitch. Who needed it anyway?

In solitary confinement for quite a while, Remus thought back to last night, and was quite positive he had one of the nights of his life last night. Just a gut feeling.

He hadn't told any one of the guys yet, because he knew that would get them overly excited, but in the past few transformations in Hogwarts he had been able to recall flashes of the night the Maruaders romped around the grounds.

He knew they took a dip in the Lake last night, said hello to the Giant Squid.

He vaguely remembered a stag getting his antlers tangled up in some low vines and branches, and a giant black dog rolling around, howling with what was unmistakeably dog laughter.

He smelled again the scent of Acromantula venom, the acrid stench from a dead giant spider that Peter had stumbled upon.

He saw the castle from the top of a tree he and Sirius had managed to climb, the beautiful lights and the steeples, the stars and the moon...

"Hey Lils." James said, nuzzling Lily's neck as he approached her from behind.

"I thought I told you not to call me that."

"Well obviously I didn't listen." James laughed.

"Not a great way to start a first date, James, disobeying your girlfriend."

"Good point. I'll try harder." James chuckled, as he led her out of the Great Hall by her hand.

"So what are we doing today?" Lily asked.

"You'll see."

"C'mon tell me."

"I put a lot of effort into this, and I want you to be surprised."

"Tell meeeeeeeeeeee." Lily whined.

James was proud to say he did not cave to her puppy dog eyes, incessant whining, or girlfriend-is-lord-of-the-universe argument.

They strolled into Hogsmeade.

They walked right through and out of Hogsmeade.

They passed the turnstile, going onto the path going into the woods.

Lily was getting really bewildered. "James, where _are_ we going? If you don't tell me soon I'm going to think you are abducting me and scream for help."

"You really think screaming would help? Go ahead and try then, Lily Evans." At this point James added a archetypal villianous laughter, so evil James himself got scared. _MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA._

Lily paused.

"You _practise_ your fake evil laughter?" She began laughing. Very, very hard.

James hung his head in shame. "Yes."

* * *

Fortunately, Lily's laughing ceased after another 5 minutes of walking, by which time they had arrived at their destination.

"A random clearing in the forest? James-" Lily began, but she was cut off.

"Its not just any random clearing Lils."

"Oh really?"

"Really. For starters-" James walked over to a bush and somehow produced a huge picnic basket from its green leafy depths. "It happens to have-Wow, what's this?"

Lily laughed as James gave a running commentary on how the clearing was so special while pulling out what appeared to be a barbeque grille and lots of various meats out of the basket.

"-and look at that! Wild ixora flowers! Thats some special soil that gave birth to these flowers, yes siree, it is faaaaaaaaantastic soil here that-"

"Shut up, James." Lily laughed.

"I'm just proving my point that this clearing is very special."

"I'm sure it is. I believe you. Really."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then, as a reward, I give you...a true blue, couple's barbeque, courtesy of the one and only James Potter!"

"Awwwww. You knew I like grilled stuff?"

"Well it wasn't easy to find out, considering you seem to inhale anything that remotely resembles food, but i coaxed it out of Alice a few days ago."

"Awwwww. That is so sweet. And remotely stalker-like in a way."

"You love it."

She laughed. "You sneaked out of the castle to set all this up?"

"Maybe."

"Going for a bit of mystery here, aren't we?"

"You got me. _Ways to Pick Up Cute Witches Rule #07: Create an aura of mystery about yourself to lure her in._"

"And who wrote that book?"

"Me. And Sirius, a little bit. Genius, I know."

Lily laughed again, and finally figured out why she liked James Potter: no one else could make her laugh so much, and feel so good.

* * *

Peter Pettigrew wandered around Hogsmeade, slightly bored, too intimidated to talk to anyone.

He saw James and Lily go out of Hogsmeade to where James had planned out a brilliant first date for Lily, and he also saw Sirius trying to convince Stacy Parr (her name hadn't started with a C after all) that he was part of the '76 England national under-18s quidditch World Cup team.

Peter knew enough about Sirius' con jobs to say hello and get the hell out of sight to keep Sirius from getting angry about "botched wingmanship."

Alice and Kelly said hello, but he wasn't about to crash a date, or join in Kelly's famously marathon-like shopping sprees.

So he here he was, bored and alone.

But not for long.

Lucius Malfoy, nineteen years of age and fresh out of Hogwarts, had just been given his first assignment from his employer of shadowy origins: recruit Peter Pettigrew. He observed his target from his vantage point in a cafe, nursed his coffee for a while, then made his move.

* * *

Dinner that night was a pleasant affair.

Stacy really did bring a friend for a quickly recovering Remus, though Lily, Alice, and Kelly kept shooting him strange looks.

James and Lily, smelling of smoke, recounted their first date.

Sirius managed to get the news out to everyone that he was apparently a national youth Quidditch hero without Stacy finding out.

Alice was with her new boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, at the Hufflepuff table, looking like she was having a hell of a time.

Kelly bragged about their new cut price discoveries to anyone who would listen.

Stacy thought she was dating a Quidditch superstar.

So really, everyone was happy. Except Peter Pettigrew. But no one bothered to ask the poor quiet boy why he was being especially quiet today.

And so the seeds of doubt grew.

* * *

Later that night, Lily, Alice and Kelly burst into the boy's dormitory and locked the door after them, dead serious.

"What the-" Sirius looked up as he stepped out of the shower with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Sirius, get your clothes on. We have something to discuss with you guys." Lily said briskly.

"Honey, what's going on?" James rose from his bed.

"You'll see in a moment."

Five minutes later, everyone was settled down, sitting around the room in various stages of after dinner lethargy.

"Ok, redhead, what's up." Sirius began while drying his hair, looking surprisingly like Lily and Alice in the Common Room a day ago.

Lily took a deep breath, and everyone in the room sat up a little straighter.

"Remus, we know you're a werewolf."

* * *

"Remus, we know you're a werewolf."

That statement hit like a runaway train.

James' arm around Lily's waist tensed, considerably. Peter fell off his chair in shock.

Sirius was so stunned he held his wand stationary for too long and the smell of burning hair permeated the room. "DAMNIT MY HAIR!"

But Remus Lupin sat there, immobile, like a condemned man, head bowed. He looked up, and his face was white.

"I understand," He whispered into the eerily silent room after Sirius' outburst, and stood up to walk out.

To walk off, walk away from the only life he had ever known.

To walk into an existence lesser than nothing.

This day, the day he dreaded the most, had finally come.

* * *

Kelly, sitting by the door, stood up as well, and stopped him.

"Wait, Remus, where are you going?" She said, startled by the sudden solemness.

"To Professor Dumbledore. I know, you wouldn't want a werewolf around. I'll leave tonight, it would be as if I was never here by tomo-"

SLAP.

Alice had also stood up, and had given a sickly boy a resounding slap.

"The only reason anyone here would despise you is that you despise yourself, Remus."

Stunned faces abound.

"Remus..." Lily started tentatively, unsure of how to react to Alice's outburst. "Alice has-has a cousin that was bitten last year. She was 9. She totally understands how you feel right now. And while me and Kelly may not, all we wanted to say was that we symphathise."

"That was all." Kelly nodded in agreement.

"You guys...don't want me to leave?" Remus turned.

"No you dork." Lily smiled gently. "Who would study with me if you left? James is hopeless as a study partner."

"Hey!" James protested.

"Yeah. And who would I go to for flawless advice on anything from chess tactics to potion recipes?" Kelly chipped in, grin back in place.

"And who would teach my little cousin how to live?" Alice said quietly, quivering.

Remus stood there, stunned, for a long time, unable to believe his luck.

After an eternity, he gave a teary smile. "I would love to meet your cousin, and teach her how to live, Alice."

* * *

"So what was the big idea, springing something like that on us?" James asked his girlfriend as soon as they were alone, ostensibly on business in the Head's office.

"There wasn't a big idea. And I'm not done questioning you."

"Me?"

"Yes. Remus was pretty overwhelmed just now so we didn't say anything, but don't think we haven't noticed that the three of you disappear with him on full moon nights."

_Uh-oh_ went James' mind.

"Well?" Lily arched an eyebrow.

"Um...We're providing moral support?"

Lily's eyebrow went higher into her fringe. James sighed in defeat, knowing Lily would never give this up unless she got something out of him.

"Look, Lily, I would really love to tell you, but I can't. All I can tell you is that we are trying to help Remus."

"Well...is it dangerous?" Lily pressed, frowning.

James took a long pause before answering. "Quite, I would say."

Lily sighed. "I presume it isn't within school rules then."

"No, it most definitely isn't."

"Is it even legal?"

"Not exactly, no."

"Oh, James." Lily implored with her eyes, but he pulled away.

"Look, we know what we're doing, okay? You have to trust me on this."

Lily thought over this for a while, then decided on a compromise.

"Alright, but promise me you'll try to stay out of trouble?"

James laughed. "Lils, trouble finds me of its own accord. Don't worry too much about it, ok?"

* * *

The next day was significant for several reasons: one of their group was now a known werewolf (within themselves, anyway), it was Sunday, meaning the piles of homework had to be cleared by hook or by crook (usually by crook), and Professor Dumbledore was finally back at his seat at breakfast, much to many students' delight.

It was also the day of the first match of the Hogwarts Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw.

The school nearly trembled with pure excitement.

Seeing James psyching the team and himself up so hard he barely had time for her, and basically none for breakfast, Lily decided to remind him of the mysterious figure in the Forest later. Dumbledore would still be here after the match, after all.

On the other hand, the other three Marauders were extra gleeful that morning, even for a Quidditch match day, so Lily suspected something was up. She had given up trying to find out what they were up to ever since she began dating James, so she told herself to enjoy the match and whatever the boys had planned.

Provided they didn't mess with her, of course.

* * *

"Welcome, one and all, to the first Quidditch match of the year!" A new commentator's voice echoed around the stadium, to rousing applause from the staff and students.

Of course, if one had bothered to look carefully one wold notice that the original commentator and Professor McGonagall had been trying to pry open the door to the commentator's box; i.e whoever the new commentator was, he was not invited.

"Mr Thomas Age is currently experiencing some technical difficulties right now, and as such, I will be taking over control of the commentators-" At this point many people had noticed Thomas Age's _technical difficulties_, and had also noticed that in Thomas' usual place, was Peeves. Sniggers broke out.

"You made _Peeves_ the commentator?" Lily groaned.

"Hey, look, it could have been worse, alright?" Sirius grinned.

"How? Sirius, how can anything_ possibly_ be worse than having Peeves make crass jokes over the PA system for 2 hours?" Alice shot back.

"Well for starters, Remus had this evil notion that we should lock Filch inside the box and set the PA system to permanently on."

"No!" The girls exclaimed, horrified that a person as refined as Remus could come with an idea of such pure evil.

"Yes. But Peeves wanted in, so we went with him as commentator. Shhhh, I want to hear what he says," Remus replied, completely deadpan. Meanwhile, Sirius and Peter were showing their utmost delight with themselves in a very loud way.

"-Thomas Age. What a name, huh? Can you imagine if he married a girl named Sue? Her name would be SUE AGE! HAHA! GEDDIT, GEDDIT? SUE-W-AGE!-"

It went on like this until the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor players marched onto the field, laughing along with everyone else at the new commentator.

"-And here come the players! Oh, I suppose I'm obliged to read their names out, and boy- have we got some good ones here too look at it – Merwyn Finwick, what, couldn't your parents spell Merlin properly? HAHAHA! –"

He didn't even notice the start of the game, so engrossed was the poltergeist in making fun of the poor Quidditch players names.

Eventually, Peeves got bored. So he blew a wet raspberry into the microphone. Loudly.

Problem was, he was a poltergeist, meaning he wasn't really obligated to breathe. Which inturn meant his wet raspberries could sometimes last for days.

"--"

And so on.

Fortunately for the people in the stands who couldn't really see anything Professor McGonagall eventually managed to rig the PA system slightly, which allowed Thomas Age to finally commentate properly, but also meant he had to make himself heard over the Peeves' continued raspberry.

"AND I'M FINALLY BACK ONLINE-"

"-PFFFFFHTBTHTBHTBTHTBTHBT-"

"-NOT TO WASTE ANY TIME GETTING INTO THE GAME, THE SCORE IS CURRENTLY 30-10 IN FAVOUR OF GRYF-"

"-PFFFFFHTBTHTBHTBTHTBTHBT-"

"-POTTER WITH THE QUAFFLE FOR GRYFFINDOR, AND HE LOBS IT UP TO FENWICK-"

"-PFFFFFHTBTHTBHTBTHTBTHBT-"

"-TURNS AND SHOOTS! GOALLLLL FOR GRYFFIN-"

"-PFFFFFHTBTHTBHTBTHTBTHBT-"

"-SO ITS 40-10 AND CAN RAVENCLAW PULL BACK? WE SHALL SEE-"

"-PFFFFFHTBTHTBHTBTHTBTHBT-"

"-DOVER NOW WITH THE BALL FOR RAVEN-OHHHH NICE TACKLE THERE BY GRYFFINDOR CAPTAIN JAMES POTTER-"

And suddenly it all stopped. A hush fell over the stadium, the players stopped in mid-air, all staring at the stand where the Headmaster was standing upright, his wand held aloft, a beam of light stifling all sound except his own voice, booming around the stadium.

"All students please return to your common rooms IMMEDIATELY. I repeat, return to your Common Rooms IMMEDIATELY. The match is postponed under further notice."

**A/N: Sorry for the extremely long break! Writing in the army is just kinda impossible, and then i got transferred to the air force but I had no mood to write anything; end result, 6 months of no updates. I will try to finish this story now that I have both time and slightly more inspiration, so please continue to read and review!**


	12. Remember

**Chapter 11: Remember**

James and Lily stumbled into the Gryffindor Common Room,having spent the last couple of hours helping the teachers rush around the school, throwing stubborn students back into their Common Rooms and keeping them, all the while trying to figure out what was going on.

After a while, they gave up.

Both of them plopped down on the couch on front of the fireplace next to Alice, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"Did you two find out what happened?" Sirius asked eagerly. This was accompanied by querying faces on the rest of them. None of them had taken too kindly to being stuffed into their Common Room and locked there in the middle of a Quidditch and a prank.

James sighed and shook his head.

"We did tell Professor Dumbledore about the mysterious figure though." Lily chipped in, head on James' shoulder.

"And?" Alice asked.

"And he thanked us for that information but didn't say anything. He didn't even have a visible reaction to it."

"So maybe he knows it's nothing for us to be worried about?"

"Or maybe he knows we will worry too much about it and that's why he has refused to tell us anything." James said slowly.

"Maybe." Remus murmured, knowing who James was thinking about. He was proven right.

"I wish my parents were still around," James growled in frustration. "I could just send an owl over and know what the hell is going on in two hours."

Lily stroked his hand to soothe him, but it didn't really work.

"You know, James, you never did tell us what exactly happened to them." Sirius said. This was greeted with surprise, because while the rest of them were to afraid to probe into the details of that incident, they always assumed Sirius knew, because he had always been the closest to James' family.

James brushed a little dirt off his Quidditch robes, and took a deep breath. This was the first time he had allowed himself to think about anything remotely connected to his parents since they passed away without a warning, and all the pain and regret came rushing back.

Lily gripped his hand harder, knowing how sensitive this issue was to him.

"You guys know how my father is the Head of the Aurors?" He began. The rest nodded.

* * *

"Harold! Hey, Harold!" A loud voice sounded around the Atrium in the Ministry, just as Harold Potter was about to step into grated fireplace that would have brought him home.

He turned, and saw his deputy sprinting across the Atrium, stopping breathless in front of him. Harold laughed. Old Bertie always did panic about the smallest things.

"What is it, Bert? Relax, catch your breath, and tell me." He said.

"We just got an owl from our spies." Bert managed to gasp out.

The Ministry's spies, generally, did not use owls as a form of communications due to their susceptibility to interception.

"An owl?"

"Yeah. There was no time to go through our usual chain of contacts, and a Patronus would have been too hard and unreliable to conjure, considering the location of this particular spy."

Harold suspected 'this spy' referred to someone near Voldemort, then. Information compartmentalisation was so tight in his department now even he did not know the details of some of his subordinates' job scope, as his high profile position and status in the Magical World made him a huge target for Voldemort.

The Atrium was only dimly lit, as most of the workers, even with their extra workload in the midst of war, had gone home. He had been working for too hard lately. Sighing, he put the Floo powder back into the pouch next to the fireplace and dusted his hands off.

"What was it about?" He inquired, beginning to walk back to his office in resignation.

"Actually, about you, sir."

Harold stopped in his tracks.

"What about me, Bert?" Harold asked quietly.

"Their target for the attack tonight, sir. It's you and Mrs Potter."

* * *

Laura Potter sighed and signalled for the house elves to clear the table. It was getting late, and it seemed like her husband wasn't going to be home tonight, again.

It wasn't as if she asked for much. She understood how important her husband and his work was to the Magical World, but sometimes it felt like she only saw him for five minutes every three days or so when he came back to take a shower.

He had explained everything to her, and she was a smart woman as well, and she knew the harder he worked the more probable it would be that the war would end and she would get the man she loved back again, but sometimes it was just so hard.

And to make things worse, her rascal of a son, James, and his unofficially adopted brother, Sirius, were at their last year at Hogwarts, and even if they did destroy every single thing they came into contact with at least they provided some joy-

"Madam, there is lots of men at the doors!" Hicky the house elf said, bowing at the doorway of the Dining Room.

Laura paled. Trembling, she waved for the house elf to let them in, because she was a Potter and she would be damned if she didn't at least give everyone who came to her door a grand welcome.

* * *

Harold pulled his own black cloak over his shoulders, rushing out to the Apparition point to meet the rest of his team.

"Sir, are you sure you want do this personally? I mean-" Bert began in a desperate bid to keep his boss from doing something he thought insane, but the day Harold Potter listened to anyone other than himself had not yet come.

"Yes, I'm sure, Bert. She's my wife, and if I can't even protect my own family then I'm not fit to lead the Aurors." He said impatiently, and with a nod around to the hastily assembled team of Aurors, he was gone.

* * *

Harold Potter and his team Apparated straight into his own dining room, as the Death Eaters had systematically re-routed the wards protecting the house, as if to prove that they could, that they had someone inside the Ministry providing them with enough information to bring every single protection he had laid on the mansion to waste.

He took it all in.

His wife of more than twenty years, slumped in her seat, never to get her last dinner with her beloved husband.

His house elves lying on the floor, having served his family for the last time tonight.

The pictures of his son, smashed and shattered, thrown from their rightful place over the mantelpiece.

And the thirty Death Eaters massed around him and his team, waiting for them.

* * *

When the Minister of Magic had himself stepped through the debris of the Potter Mansion, he wept for the man destined to be his successor.

* * *

"And I haven't thought about them until today," James finished, his eyes telling all of them of the regret he had in being unable to even say goodbye.

"Hey James," Sirius said, after a long silence filled with soft sniffling.

"Yeah?' He looked up.

"We'll get them back. We'll become Aurors, and we'll get those pricks back for what they did."

James laughed bitterly. "Yeah. And not just for what they did to my parents. We'll get them back for everything they've done to everyone."

The rest concurred, even if they not all of them were going to make it, or would want to be Aurors. They were all going to fight back, in their own ways.

* * *

Up in his office, Albus Dumbledore was having a sucky day. It was not very appropriate for a grand old warlock like him to use such words, it was true, but he had to say it. He was a having sucky, _sucky_ day.

Damn Voldemort ruined the best of days. And he really was having a very enjoyable one, what with Peeves being locked into the commentator's box, and some very exciting play by the Gryffindor team, but he had to stop the match and lock his beloved students back into their dorms.

Filch had run up to him during the match, being one of the few people who did not enjoy match days, and told him that he had found a dozen dead Acromantulas at the edge of the forest, and a suspicious figure lurking around at the same spot who disappeared when he went nearer to investigate.

Anyone who could kill twelve Acromantulas posed a huge danger to his students, and therefore Dumbledore had sent everyone back to where they were presumably safe.

And then later on his two head students had come to him with a story about a dark figure, possibly the same person, lurking around the place at midnight two weeks back when he left the school.

Whether the two events were linked or not, he knew very well that if they had any sinister connotations only one person could be behind it: Tom Marvolo Riddle.

And Dumbledore was not happy about that. Not happy at all.

"What are you planning, Tom?" Dumbledore asked aloud softly, his silver instruments tinkling and smoking away in his office.

* * *

The students, to their great relief, were allowed out of their Common Rooms the next day for breakfast. Unfortunately, it was also Monday, which meant they would also be allowed out for their Common Rooms for lessons.

"We have lessons today?" Sirius exclaimed, outraged, seconds after he had whooped in joy as Professor McGonagall had stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room, allowing them to go for breakfast.

"Hogwarts is still a school, Mr Black, and therefore, yes, there will still be lessons." Professor McGonagall replied sternly, before turning in a flurry of robes and leaving. The Fat Lady's portrait closed after her.

"I'm screwed," Sirius groaned, slumping into his couch. The three guys laughed.

"Let me guess," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "You haven't done your homework?"

"Well I didn't expect there to be school today, did I?" Sirius replied.

"It's Monday. How would there be no school?"

"But they cancelled Quidditch. Surely, if they cancelled Quidditch, they _have_ to cancel classes! Quidditch is the most important thing around here!" Sirius argued indignantly.

Lily decided not to argue with this decidedly strange line of logic, and headed for breakfast with everyone else.

* * *

"So, Padfoot, what are you going to-" James began as they walked down the corridor, but was cut off.

"Now isn't the time to give me your I-told-you-so speech, Jamsie-poo." Sirius said, his face grim at the prospect of facing his teacher's wrath in approximately forty-five minutes' time.

"I wasn't going to give you that speech," James said, feigning hurt. "And I told you not to call me by that name."

"Why not? Your mother does it all the- You know what? Never mind. Right now I need to find a way to not die a horrible death." Sirius retorted but managed to catch himself in time.

"Why not just call in sick?" Remus put in.

Sirius turned to look at his friend incredulously, as though he would never have expected the Prefect thought up such an evil and diabolical idea. Most people wouldn't. On the other hand, the Marauders weren't most people. The girls, however, were.

"Remus! You're a Prefect!" Alice admonished.

Remus Lupin shrugged, as if to say 'yeah whatcha gonna do about that', and strolled into the Great Hall.

"You know, Remus Lupin as a bad boy is really sexy." Kelly laughed out to Alice as they followed him into the Hall. Peter's ears rose at that.

* * *

Sirius did call in sick, as it turned out. He simply disappeared after breakfast, and James had to tell Professor Flitwick of the gruesome and disgusting symptoms Sirius was currently experiencing in excruciating detail, in a resigned, my-best-friend's-a-retard tone.

At the back of their Charms class, the girls were taking advantage of the general chaos to get some private conversation time.

"So?" Lily began, raising her eyebrows at Alice.

"So what?" she replied, innocent as an angel.

"So you've been avoiding our every question about Frank, that's what." Kelly replied, and Lily nodded in agreement.

Alice looked around, and saw there was obviously no way she was going to get out of this one.

"Alright," she sighed. "What do you two want?"

"Everything!" Kelly squealed. "We are your girlfriends. And girlfriends are supposed to get all this information voluntarily, Alice. I'm hurt."

At this she pouted. Several Ravenclaw boys from across the class nudged each other and suppressed grins. Kelly ignored them.

"Let's start with the date." Lily said to start her off.

"It was fine."

"Fine?"

"It really was!"

"You gonna give us details, sugar, or are we going to have to hex them out of you?" Lily said, her eyes narrowed.

Alice stared with apprehension at the tip of Lily's wand. While she would have liked to believe that Lily would never do such a thing to her, she had enough experience while trying to pry information about her and James to know that it was really frustrating.

She gave in.

"Oh alright. He picked me up at the Great Hall, as you very well know."

"Go on," Lily growled. Kelly dodged a Stunner that had just bounced off James' Shield Charm, thankful for her Seeker reflexes.

"He was really sweet, and brought me flowers." Both Lily and Kelly 'awwww-ed' at this.

And considering how she was so reluctant to talk at the start, she actually had a lot of fun describing the rest of her date with Frank.

"See, that wasn't so hard, right?" Lily said in satisfaction, having 'ooohhh-ed' and 'ahhhh-ed' at all the right moments.

Alice laughed and stowed her wand as Flitwick signalled that the class had ended with a look of great relief on his face, and never even bothered to take attendance. Somehow, the Professor hated to teach Shield Charms.

Peter was struggling at his table, his face apparently hexed to have dozens of full blown pimples.

"Ewww," Kelly said, and made sure to keep her distance, as Remus and James tried to hold Peter still to reverse the hex.

"Don't worry Pete, we'll get that Ravenclaw prick back for you," James assured him when they finally managed to cure Peter of his weird affliction.

"Yeah, maybe some of that description of Sirius you were putting up for Flitwick earlier would come in handy." Remus said.

The girls stared at Remus in newfound admiration again, rediscovering the werewolf they had called friend for years.

Peter made some excuse to go to the toilet, saying he'll meet up with them for the next class.

No one really noticed.

* * *

The Marauders managed to scrape a free period after lunch, so they went up to the Common Room, where they found Sirius sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Move over, you big lump." James said as he bodily hauled Sirius up so he occupied less space.

"You're a big lump." Sirius retorted sleepily.

"Your mom's a big lump."

"Can't argue with that." Sirius laughed.

"So what have you been doing, other than sleeping in and missing lunch?" Remus asked.

"What? I missed lunch?" Sirius exclaimed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

"Get over it." Remus cut him off.

"You get over it."

"You're mom's getting over- okay, can we not do this again?" James said.

"But if I go down for lunch now, all the Professors would know I'm actually fit for classes!"

"So go for the freaking classes. You've already skived off half a day of lessons."

"But I haven't done any homework."

"Then what the hell have you been doing?"

"You know, general...Marauding?"

"We're not in fourth year anymore, Sirius, that's not gonna get you off the hook anymore." Remus said, laughing.

"What, the 'Maruaders' too cool for you now?"

"No, the name's still pretty damn awesome, but you need to get over it, Sirius."

"Why? I came up with it, genius that I am."

"Yeah, well, genius, maybe it's time you got some homework done." James said.

"Pah. Work is for mortals. Sirius Black is way above all that mundane crap."

"Hey, Professor McGonagall said she would come up to check on you, see if you're really in bed."

"What? And you never deigned to tell me that until now?" Sirius jumped in alarm, much to the others' amusement.

"Get me some food from dinner," he said, and disappeared into their dormitory to feign illness again.

The Marauders laughed.

* * *

"Seriously, what is up with Alice?" Kelly said as they failed to find her again, walking up to their Arithmancy class. "She hasn't sat with us for meals for days!"

"I know. She must really like Frank." Lily opined.

"Okay, drool over Frank all you want, girl, but I want my Alice baaaackkkkkkkkk." Kelly whined.

Lily laughed. "Try and be happy for her?"

"I'm trying, but it's not working. What about her thing with Sirius anyway?"

"Just between you and me, I think Frank's a much better boyfriend than Sirius."

"Easy for you to judge us mortals when the Head Boy's hanging off your little finger."

"Shut up. And I'm serious about that Sirius over Frank thing. Let James find out I think Frank's better than his best friend and I would be in for it."

"Yeah right. James would probably choose the deaths of the whole of Hogwarts over letting you have a scratch."

"Shut up." Lily said, but grinned in spite of herself.

* * *

**A/N: Hey to everyone again. New update! Sorry if the start's a little gloomy. My father passed away two weeks ago, and I felt I had to write that part as a little tribute to the best father anyone could hope to have. Right now I'm dividing my time between fanfiction, playing Seasons In The Sun on my guitar and watching How I Met Your Mother, so expect more updates soon. Reviews are the bomb. I happen to like bombs.**


	13. Sticking Excalibur Into The Rock

**A/N: Couldn't write anything else until I squeezed this**** out of myself. (Couldn't get to display the address of my blog, so go to my profile to check it out.)  
**

**Chapter 12: Sticking Excalibur Into The Rock

* * *

  
**

"Sirius?" James asked Sirius as the other Marauders trooped into their dormitory after dinner.

"Yeah?" Sirius replied, his head poking out of the mess of blankets on his bed.

"Have you done any work?"

"No."

"Did you really expect anything else?" Remus laughed, grabbing his spare robes and heading to the bathroom.

"No." James said, stretching himself out on his own four poster. "I do expect the teachers to ask for all his overdue work tomorrow, though. I'm thinking his mystery illness would have cleared by then."

"Look at you, Jamsie, all responsible and everything," Sirius with an air of disgust.

"C'mon, let's go to the Common Room and get at least something done."

"Aw, mom!"

"I'm serious."

"No I am."

"McGonagall asked about you today."

"Really? What did Minnie say?"

"She said that if she didn't get your work on her desk by lunch tomorrow she would make sure you never graduated."

Sirius sat up bolt upright. "And you're only asking me to do my work now? Man, James, what kind of a friend are you?"

"The good kind," James laughed as he too dragged himself off his bed and started picking up his stuff to go down to the Common Room. "Coming, Pete? Pete?"

He looked around the room, but Peter Pettigrew was nowhere to be found.

"Funny," James frowned and muttered to himself. "He was right behind Remus and I."

"To the torture chamber!" Sirius yelled as he grabbed James and ran out, leaving him no time to think about Peter's disappearance.

* * *

"Ladies!" Sirius greeted the girls with a bow and flourish, as a laughing James smacked his head while coming off the stairs.

"Hey Sirius," They chorused back with a hint of resignation.

"Now, now, girls, what's this lack of enthusiasm hear in your voices, hmm?"

"Try to memorise the twenty different uses of moonstone, and then tell me about enthusiasm." Kelly said, her voice coming from behind a long piece of parchment.

"That's easy," Sirius as he hopped onto a couch, before reciting all twenty uses of moonstone from memory.

The three girls gaped.

"No need to get all surprised, I do study, you know."

Cue more gaping and general astonishment.

"I do!"

Snorts of disbelief abound.

"Okay, fine, so maybe I memorised all that to impress that Ravenclaw chick who's in the Potions club last year, but it-"

"I knew it," Lily laughed as she made space on her beanie for her boyfriend.

"You know, one day, I'm really gonna study for studying's sake and you people are not gonna believe me, and then you're all gonna regret it."

"Now why would we do that?"

" I dunno, cos' I'm so cool and all." Sirius laughed. Kelly and Alice threw quills at him.

"So what are you doing Lils?" James half whispered into Lily's ear.

"Something about Charms," She replied absentmindedly, twirling her hair, more interested in her work than in him. James knew better than to keep pestering her.

"Fine," He sighed, and took out his own Charms homework.

Remus came down the stairs just as all of them were getting into their work. (Except Sirius, who was now across the room, talking to two sixth-years, one of them a pretty blonde.)

"Hey guys," He said as he plopped down on to the couch next to Kelly. "How's it going?"

"Bad," James replied as he threw his quill down.

"No work of your own, Remus?" Alice asked, noticing the lack of any parchment, quill, or notes in Remus' hands.

"Oh no. Remus finishes up all his work in class." James replied for his friend.

"What? Like, while the professors are talking?" Kelly asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"How do you get any of what they are saying?"

"Just learn how to multi task."

"And he gets O's for all his homework and tests." Kelly rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"It's not that hard you know."

"You suck." Alice said.

"I've been there. And by the way, you mixed up the Verterbrate Matrix and the basics for the Theory for Transfiguring Molluscs." Remus laughed, reading Alice's essay over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, you still suck."

"Anything you say, but shells aren't spines."

"Oh just-wait a minute. How did you spot that in an essay two feet long?"

"No way the factor multiplier figures for molluscs could be that high."

"Maybe you should stop hanging around us." Kelly laughed as Alice began erasing half her essay miserably. "It's bad for our self-confidence."

"Ah fine. Hey where's Peter?"

"He left while you were in the shower. We have no idea where he went." James said.

"Huh. Haven't seen him around much lately. Strange."

"Remedial lessons? He hasn't been doing that well-Whoa!" James jumped, startled, as a Muggle aeroplane, folded out of spell-reinforced parchment, landed on their table.

Instinctively, Remus turned to look for Sirius. Sure enough, Sirius Black was waving discreetly at him while pretending to listen to something one of the girls was saying, grinning like an idiot.

He sighed. All of them watched as he picked up the parchment plane and unfolded it.

_My Dear Moony,_

_The great Sirius Black is in a bit of a spot you can see, I'm making some headway with Miss Penny __Gr Go__ Something here, but her friend's in the way. Some inspired wingmanship might be in order, don't you think?_

_Hop on over and I'll introduce you to her friend. Once I find out her name._

_The One and Only, Sirius Black_

Remus sighed again. Excusing himself, he walked over to where Sirius and the two girls were chatting, if only because finishing up homework in class left him with nothing to do in his free time.

* * *

Peter wandered the dark halls, deserted because of the half curfew imposed. His sweaty left hand clutched onto a piece of parchment , seemingly blank.

He tried not to jump at every innocent noise, amplified a hundred times over by the dark corridors and his own mind. Ducking into an alcove, he tapped the parchment and whispered something in the dark. Lines and dots began appearing and moving around on the previously blank parchment, barely visible by moonlight.

He smiled in spite of his own nervousness. He had found the place he was told to meet with his new friends.

Wiping the map blank, he went a short way down the corridor and disappeared into a door on the left.

* * *

"Has it occurred to you," Remus began as the two boys began making their way back to their friends, "That the best way to show Alice that you like her is to _not_ hump everything that moves?"

"Oh Moony, don't be crude." Sirius laughed, falling into step beside his friend, obviously pleased with himself.

"Sure, I'm the crude one."

"Oh c'mon, Remy, you liked it just as much as I did!"

Remus grinned in spite of himself. Say it out loud and he would deny it, but once in a while innocent flirting was quite fun.

"Maybe, but at least I would remember their names tomorrow."

"C'mon, Remus, they've been in our house for six years and you've only bothered to learn their names now?"

"Sirius."

"Yeah?"

"They were Hufflepuffs."

"Ooops." Sirius laughed.

"Do you ever listen?" Remus asked, exasperated as he sat down beside Kelly again.

"Oh, the ditzy twins!" Kelly exclaimed in fake delight as the two of them made themselves comfortable.

"Words can hurt, you know," Sirius whined, holding his hand over his chest in mock agony.

"I know. That was the point." Kelly giggled.

"Nice," Alice laughed. "So, how did it go?"

"I was brilliant, as usual, of course. Got a date. Remus here wasn't too bad either."

"Oh, did you get a date too?" Kelly asked Remus.

"Yes he did, but Mr Genius turns it down." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"What? Why?"

"Well, I just wasn't that into her." Remus answered off handedly.

"Ah. High tastes. He's way classier than you, Sirius," Kelly commented.

"You know, I will not take this abuse."

"So leave."

"I will. Soon."

"No need," Lily spoke up for the first time in about two hours. "We're leaving. C'mon girls, I'm beat."

"Finally!" Kelly and Alice moaned. "We thought you would never let us leave."

Lily laughed as they packed their stuff.

"See you here tomorrow at seven?" Lily whispered as James leaned in for his good night kiss.

"Sure."

The girls spread the goodbyes and see-yous around as best they could after their marathon session.

* * *

"See you here tomorrow at seven?" Sirius asked incredulously as soon as the door to the girl's dorm closed.

"No I'm meeting Lily here at seven, not you." James joked.

"No, man, I'm serious, she's controlling the time you go to have breakfast?"

"Well…I guess. What's your point?"

"That-that you're whipped, man! This is not- it's not gonna- it's not healthy, okay?"

"Sure, you're the expert on health, Mr-I-Take-Sick-Leave-Two-Days-Out-Of-Five."

"That makes no sense whatsoever! You know I'm not really sick when- Pete!" Sirius exclaimed in surprise, as Peter Pettigrew clambered into the Common Room with uncommon haste.

"Hey guys," Peter stammered. Remus frowned as he studied the smaller boy's nervous demeanor.

"Pete," Remus began. "What's up?"

"Um..nothing much,"

"Really? Cos' you seem really flustered."

"Well actually, there's something I have to tell you guys."

"Speak up or shut up, Pete, cos' I'm beat." Sirius yawned, stretching out on the couch vacated by the girls.

Peter took a deep breath.

"Filch took the Marauder's Map."

* * *

_So this is how it was going to be_, Peter thought to himself, as he lay in his four poster bed, listening to Sirius come up with ever more ridiculous plans to retrieve the Map, and the other two rebutting him with a grave air of mourning.

"How about Stunning him when he's entering his office?" Sirius asked, eyes wide and desperate.

"We're not going to freaking attack a member of the faculty, Pad." Remus replied with a tone of finality.

"Well, then you come up with some ideas, you're supposed to be the smart one!" Sirius cried, exasperated.

Remus said nothing, but looked to James, who had been suspiciously quiet up to now.

"Say something, you two!" Sirius, close to shouting, exclaimed again. "It's not like Pete's going to of any help, he's the moron who lost it-"

_There it is,_ Peter thought. _They value an enchanted piece of parchment more than me._

"Maybe it's a sign, Padfoot." James said quietly. Remus smiled slightly.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "Elaborate."

"Maybe it's a sign that we shouldn't have the Marauder's Map anymore."

"What? James, we spent a whole year working on that map! It has helped us out so many times- and you just- Are you even listening to yourself?" Sirius argued, indignant.

"Yes. But we know the school so well now, Sirius. We don't need the map anymore."

"Girls don't need wear clothes either, they've got heating charms and everything, but they still do!" Sirius said, and continued, momentarily distracted. "You know, it really would be fantastic if they stopped wearing clothes-"

"Stop being a pervert, Pad. What I mean is, we could leave the Map for the next generation of troublemakers-" James cut in, but was in turn cut off by Remus.

"-Who can prove themselves worthy of the Map, by snatching it from Filch himself." Remus finished.

Sirius was struck dumb by the elegance of the plan.

"And it's unlikely Filch would ever be able to work the Map himself, too..hm.." He mused slowly. "What if he decides to destroy it?"

"He won't," Remus said with confidence. "At least not until he is sure he has figured out everything about the Map, and I think we are agreed that no one can see that happening in the foreseeable future."

"No. I'm sold." Sirius nodded in agreement.

"Then let the Marauder's Map be part of the legacy we leave behind in the school." James said solemnly, then broke into a grin. "Pete, stop sulking and c'mon over here. You did good today. Pete?"

The curtains around Peter's four poster were already closed.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, life continued as usual for the four Marauders, but something had changed. It was like someone close to them had died or gone away, and even though they knew they no longer had any use for the Marauder's Map, once in a while one of them would ask the others for it out of habit and then realize it was out of their reach forever, and gloom would set in thicker than before.

Things were not helped by Peter becoming more introverted than ever around them, particularly as they were spending so much time with the girls now, and Peter had never talked much around girls even before the night he lost the Map.

He would disappear for long periods and when pressed about it he would lash out before retreating further into his own shell, and it wasn't long before the other three learned not to query him, thinking that he would approach them when he wanted to.

They were, after all, the Marauders, closer than brothers, and they trusted each other completely.

But try as she might, Fate could not bring the Marauders down, and soon the arrival of the Christmas season had everyone in high spirits again.

It was hard to feel down, with Hagrid stumping up and down the corridors and planting a live Christmas tree right into the stone wherever he could find the space, Peeves hurtling through the corridors, re-wording age old carols to his liking, and most of all, the return of Professor Albus Dumbledore and the general sense of calm and order he brought back to the school.

While he had not offered an explanation with regards to the abrupt cancellation of the Quidditch match to the school, or talked about the dark figure James and Lily spotted on the grounds, he had assured everyone personally that there was, indeed, no danger at all and everything had passed.

It was hard not to believe the old man, with his twinkling blue eyes and gentle smile.

And so it was that the weekend before Christmas break, the Gryffindor Quidditch team lined up before their captain, James Potter.

"Ok people, remember what I said about their tight defense, Ravenclaw's got an extremely fast Seeker, they're going to try to hold us to a small lead to let their seeker take us out like in the last game, so-"

"James," Kelly whined. "We heard you the past two thousand times."

"Then the two thousand and first time shouldn't hurt," He growled, but just then the bell rang, announcing that it would be appropriate for the team to vacate the locker room, and tirade number two thousand and two was cut short.

Holding their hands up as they entered the tunnel to lightly brush the giant Gryffindor crest hanging above them that was widely regarded as a sign of luck by generations of Gryffindors, they walked out onto the snow covered pitch.

"-ANNNNNND HERE COMES THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM, LED BY CAPTAIN AND CHASER, JAAAAAAAAAMES POTTER!" Thomas Age, rightfully restored to the commentator's box (protected by multiple charms from Professor McGonagall that Sirius and Remus could not crack after spending hours trying to sneak Peeves in again), said, as his voice boomed around the stadium, introducing all the players.

Professor Hooch blew the whistle and threw the Quaffle into the clear and cold December air, which was snatched away in mid air by James before the ball had gotten very high; the bright red ball was quickly followed by the two Bludgers and the tiny Golden snitch, rising into the air and zooming off on their own accord.

The game quickly got off to a vicious start, as both Ravenclaw beaters got their bats onto the Bludgers before the Gryffindors, and sent both black balls of pain towards James, who was currently streaking up the pitch with the Quaffle tucked under his arm, dodging all attempts by his marker to knock the ball away.

Rolling in mid air to dodge one Bludger, a quick stop and change of direction was enough bamboozle his Ravenclaw counterpart, who failed to change direction as quickly, and could only shout in dismay as the second Bludger sent by his teammate slammed into his gut.

Taking advantage of Ravenclaw being one Chaser down, at least temporarily, James, Emmeline and Benjy then proceeded to give their opponents a lesson in fast and devastating passing before Benjy hurled a one handed shot home, right through the centre hoop.

The din of the cheering was such that the commentator's shouts of "GOAAAAAAL" could barely be heard, but James was worried. Even with their one man disadvantage, Ravenclaw's defensive tactics had managed to slow him and his Chasers down. He spotted the Ravenclaw seeker trailing Kelly, knowing she was more experienced and deciding to let her find the Snitch for him, confident that he could be faster than her once the Snitch was found. James did not know if that was true, but he had no intention of letting the outcome of the game rest on just the speed of his seeker.

"Timeout!" He called to Professor Hooch half an hour into the game and three goals up, and in the clear winter air she immediately blew her whistle.

He was giving out instructions before his feet touched the ground.

"Benjy, play four, Emmeline, stick with me, you know what to do." He said, and they both nodded. "Shelley, Joey, stop trying to attack them, it's not working. Just cover me and Emmeline."

"Kelly, that bugger is tailing you, trying to let you do all the work." James turned to address his seeker.

She flashed a grin. "No problem, James. No one's been able to beat me on pure speed once the Snitch's been spotted, and I'm not about to let this little twerp be the first."

"Even so, there's no point doing all hard work yourself. Lose him, and if you can't, get high and go slow. Don't tire yourself up."

"Okey dokey."

"Now let's get up there and show those Raven-twits how to play Quidditch." James said, and with a shout of "Gryffindor!" the team rose up into the air once more.

Whatever James said to them seemed to have worked, Lily, Alice, Remus, Sirius and Peter agreed, and within fifteen minutes of James' timeout the Gryffindor team were already another ten goals up, and Kelly had gone so high they could barely see her. The Ravenclaw seeker, unable to decide if he should follow her that high up in case the Snitch was close to the ground, had taken to drifting aimlessly at a middle height, and they knew the glare from the snowed under pitch must be killing his vision.

The sudden onslaught of goals were all attributed to Benjy Fenwick, who had taken to lurking around the Ravenclaw hoops, waiting for James and Emmeline, who were sticking very close together to provide protection to each other, to lob balls to him. Once he had the Quaffle he never missed, and the Ravenclaw defence crumbled, even with the return of their previously winded Chaser.

Kelly squinted down at the pitch, looking much smaller at this height. The glare from the sun's rays off the ground were irritating her, but because of her extreme height she knew it probably wasn't affecting her as much as the Ravenclaw seeker, some thirty meters below her. Suddenly a glint of gold caught her eye; the Snitch was skimming the snow on the pitch. She went into a near vertical dive at speeds close to suicidal, and the only indication her direct opponent got that the Snitch had already been spotted was when he saw a red blur flash from above him, streaking down towards the ground. He had barely gotten up to his top speed when Kelly pulled up two meters away from the ground, drawing gasps from the crowd, and was speeding after the Snitch. It was a no contest.

In the end, the Gryffindor victory was crushing; Ravenclaw, having been handicapped by their Chaser's early injury, could not muster up a single goal, and the final score was 290-0.

* * *

After the whole Gryffindor team had been manhandled by their adoring supporters back to their Common Room they found that Sirius and Remus had already been there before everyone else, and had already set up everything needed for a glorious party.

James vaguely remembered five shots of Firewhiskey and being dragged back up to his dorm after some very embarrassing acts on a table, though he couldn't for the life of him recall what. He strongly suspected Sirius' hand in the events that transpired.

Sirius, on the other hand, once he had had his fill of fun taking the mickey out of his drunk best friend, found himself in a dark corner of the Common Room with Penny Whats-her-name.

* * *

"You didn't have to walk me back." Alice said, though she was clearly happy her boyfriend did do so; her eyes were twinkling.

Frank shrugged it off with a slight grin. "I wanted to."

"That's sweet." Alice smiled back, before standing on tip toes to give him a goodnight kiss. He held her in place, dragging out the kiss, before letting her pull back. "You sure you don't want to come in?"

Frank shook his head. "I've heard too much about you Gryffindors' after match parties. And it's not too appropriate, considering I'm playing your team in the next match."

"Such a stickler for rules," Alice laughed softly, before giving him another peck, and stepping through the portrait hole.

"Night," Frank called out as the Fat Lady swung closed.

Alice gave a little wave, before turning around. In an instant, directly across the Common Room, her eyes met another person's: Sirius Black, whose lips were locked around a girl's mouth, caught her eye.

Feeling an inexplicable burst of irritation and anger within her, she stalked up to her room.

Sirius pulled away from Penny, and watched her stomp across the party.

"Sirius? Sirius what's wrong?" Penny asked, mystified by his sudden lack of interest in her. Just before she was about to turn around to search for the source of his distraction though, he pulled her closer.

"Nothing, babe." Sirius said, and leaned in once more.

* * *

In the aftermath of the party, Sirius Black flopped himself onto the couch Remus Lupin was occupying, and groaned.

Remus laughed. "Got shot down?"

Sirius turned to face upwards, revealing that his short was currently sporting multiple lipstick marks. "Do I look like I get shot down?"

"Maybe."

"No I don't, damn you. Alice saw me snogging Penny." Sirius said.

"And that's a problem because….?"

"Because the damn girl hates me now, that's what."

"I was under the impression that Miss Prewett did not view you favourably even before she caught your little indiscretion."

"Moony, I swear to Merlin I will kill you."

Remus laughed. "Okay, fine. But really, if you still like her, how can you still be snogging every other girl that gives you a glance?"

Sirius frowned. "It's not as if she'll ever give me a chance, especially now that Longbottom doofus from Hufflepuff is hanging around her like a fly."

"Still, it doesn't help."

"I guess it doesn't."

"So what will it be, Padfoot? Alice Prewett, or bimbos of the world?"

Sirius sat up with sudden vigor. "I choose bimbos."

Remus sighed. "I regret to say I saw that coming," he said, more to himself than to his best friend.

"Can you blame me?"

Remus thought about it for a while, how Alice looked pretty damn good with Frank, how Sirius would never want to settle down until he was sixty or seventy, how it would be really unfair for all parties involved if Sirius and Alice really got together and had to compromise with what they both really wanted. And he really couldn't blame Sirius Black for choosing to forget about the whole business.

* * *

The next morning was the first day of Christmas break, and the hangovers of all the Gryffindors from the party the night before, combined with the general rush of last minute packing and running to catch the train made for an angry atmosphere on the platform.

"Remus? Hey Remus!" Alice called out over the throngs of people on the platform. As one, the Marauders turned to see her waving frantically, and the girls following behind her.

"Hey," The panted out once they had managed to throw all of their trunks onto the rack of the compartment they had chosen.

"Hey guys," The girls chorused and fluttered their lashes in an obvious show of their joy at having played at the boys' sense of chivalry enough to get them to help them with their luggage.

Grumbling and muttering, the boys sat down with ill grace.

"So what did you holler to high heaven for me for, Miss Prewett?" Remus inquired of her once he had settled down.

"I did not holler," Alice said with an air of indignation.

The boy laughed. "Fine, then what did you want me for?"

"Well I was wondering if you had plans for anything on Christmas night." Alice asked.

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Sirius butted into the conversation brusquely.

"Yes." Alice answered coolly, not forgetting what she saw last night. "And I'm not asking Remus out. This is about something else."

"I guess if it's important I could spare the time." Remus replied, curious.

"It is. I want you to meet my little cousin. You know, the one who I talked to you about."

"The girl who was bitten?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Yes."

"I'll go early, and transform with her." Remus replied immediately, and Alice smiled gratefully.

"Christmas night is a full moon night?" James asked.

"Unfortunately, this year, yes." Remus said.

"Oh Remus, I'm so sorry." Lily said sympathetically.

"Don't be," James said with an air of resolve. "We'll be there, won't we, guys?"

"I would be there in a flash, mate, but that's provided your mother lets us off early from her Christmas dinner." Sirius replied doubtfully.

"I'll take care of her, don't worry. Pete?"

"Um…I don't think my mother would allow me to…" Peter stammered.

"It's no problem, man." Remus said, punching him lightly on his shoulder. Peter did not seem to appreciate this gesture however, showing no emotion.

"So you'll all go to Alice's house on Christmas night?" Lily repeated. "I think it would be a good idea for us to go too, right Kelly?"

"Sure. Let me talk to my parents."

"So it's settled, we'll meet at Alice's house Christmas night?" Lily looked around at them with her 'Head Girl' face, and they all nodded except Peter.

"Good. Then I need to leave for my patrol with Cade." She said, standing up.

"Nathan Cade? That Slytherin prick?" James asked.

"Yes."

"I thought you did the schedule for this train ride. Why did you put yourself with him?" James said incredulously.

"Because he's so much of a prick I have to keep an eye on him. Don't forget your patrol with Parker at noon." And she left, sliding the glass door closed behind her.

James shook his head. "Sometimes, she's too responsible."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the long gap between this update and the last, but I was getting so depressed I was either going to drink myself to death or find some other more innovative way to end my life, but that kind of behavior is too emo and Gothish for my liking, so I had to get it all out of me before I could begin to feel alive again. Tell me what you feel about this fic if you like it, or if you don't, and why. Thanks to all reviewers past and present and in advance, and pray that I can get the next chapter up soon, and get another step closer to finishing this story.**


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